Perfect Planning
by BeeKay84
Summary: Set within season 4. Just when Kim and Ron think they can spend a wonderful evening together, Drakken gets his hands on a device that might help him take over the world - and leave everyone around him helpless! My first KP fanfic. Rated T. COMPLETE!
1. A Sitch at the Wrong Time

DISCLAIMER – I do not own _Kim Possible_ or any of its characters. They belong to Disney and were created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle. When I use any other names, characters or ideas in this story that do not belong to me, I will point them out in my Author's Notes at the end of the chapter(s) in which they appear.

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Hi there! This is BeeKay84! Maybe you already know me from my other fanfics – of which my Lion King fanfics _The Lion King 3: Don't Defy Destiny _and _Nivio: The Cubhood of Loner_ are most popular, I believe. In case you don't know me or my fanfics, the first thing you need to know is: I'm from Germany, that means English is not my native language and my English is not perfect. From what I've been told, it must be quite good, though. ;) On another note, this is my first _Kim Possible_ fanfic. I never dared to write a KP fanfic before, because I'm not all that good at writing action and/or fighting scenes, which usually appear in KP episodes (and because I lacked ideas, of course). But I hope I'll manage to write a good story anyways and stay true to the characters.  
For those who do know me and who might have seen the poll "What kind of fanfic should I write next?" on my profile page: I hope you're not too disappointed by the fact that I'm not writing a new Lion King fanfic now. Out of 5 unique voters (and one of them was me D), 3 voted for a sequel to my Lion King sequel TLK3D. But as it says in the poll, it was "just for fun". I just wanted to see what people would like me to write, but I didn't want to "force" myself into writing a fanfic when I still lacked both ideas and time. Some day, I really want to start writing a TLK4 of my own, but not as long as I don't have a single idea for it. I hope you understand.  
As for this KP fanfic, it was actually a spontaneous idea I got after I've finally seen the fourth season for the first time. The idea developed fast, and soon I was writing the first chapters for a German KP forum. In German, of course. The story isn't even finished in German yet, but I decided to start translating the first few chapters into English to be able to post them here. The story is set within season 4, somewhere between the episodes "Oh No! Yono" and "Graduation". That means, Kim and Ron have been dating for a pretty long time already, about eight to ten months would be my guess. But it's a little hard to tell, because the only thing we know is that in the episode "Clean Slate", they've been together for half a year, and in "Graduation", it must have been one year. Well, and just to be sure, I've rated the story T, because there will be some hints to and jokes based on adult themes. Now – enough babbling! Hope you enjoy. ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**KIM POSSIBLE: PERFECT PLANNING**

**Chapter One: A Sitch at the Wrong Time**

It was an early Friday evening, when Kim was burrowing through her wardrobe. Same as always: So many clothes, nothing to wear! Should she pick a nice dress, or something casual? Soon, her telephone rang. Absent-minded, Kim grabbed it and answered the call: "Hello?"

"Hey, KP…"

A smile appeared on Kim's lips as she heard the light-hearted voice of her boyfriend – actually, her boyfriend _and_ best friend. "Oh, hey Ron!" she replied happily, while she continued searching her wardrobe.

"So, are you coming over then?" Ron asked.

That was when Kim hesitated: "Wait a second, I thought _you're_ coming over and we hit the town?"

"Uh, yeah…" Now, Ron's voice sounded a little nervous, and he cleared his throat: "Ahem, you know, KP, …my …my parents aren't home tonight, and… err, I…"

"Oh, you gotta look after Hana, right?" She anticipated his next words (or so it seemed).

After a short pause, Ron stuttered: "Uh… yeah… he, he… you got it… yeah…"

"That's okay, no big. Then I guess _I_'ll come over and we'll look after Hana together. We'll handle her!"

"Right… so, uh… see you later, KP."

"Yeah, see you!" Kim hung up and glanced over her wardrobe once more. Then, she decided to just stay in the clothes she was wearing: A magenta colored t-shirt with darker sleeves and grey jeans. That was how Ron liked her most anyway: Just the way she was.

A short time later, Kim went downstairs, stopped at the front door once again and shouted in the direction of the living room: "Mom? Dad? I'll be over at Ron's!"

At that, her mother appeared from the kitchen, carrying a few snacks she just fetched for TV night and said: "That's fine, honey… But I thought _he_'d come over and you'd hit the town?"

"Yeah, that's what _I_ thought, but it looks like he's stuck at home babysitting. Too bad… But no big."

"Well, have fun with the little one. Hope she won't trouble you."

"Nah, not little Hana… not any more. So, I'll come home as soon as Ron's parents are back, okay?"

"Alright, honey. Have fun!"

"Thanks, Mom." And with that, Kim stepped out of the door and started walking the short way to the Stoppables' house.

-xXOXx-

Once she arrived, she rang the doorbell. A short time later, the door opened very slowly – and Ron appeared, grinning in a lovey-dovey, if not seductive way: "Hi KP…"

"Hi Ron," Kim smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then, they entered the house and went towards the living room. On their way, Kim asked: "So, are your parents already gone?"

Ron answered this question with a lengthened and contented: "Uuhhh-huuuuuh…"

Only when they reached the living room, Kim noticed that it was quite dark in the house. The only light in the living room was the shine of some candles standing on the table. However, Kim asked about something else first: "Where's Hana?"

Ron's radiant smile turned into a questioning, confused look: "Han? Oh yeah… Uh, …not here."

"She didn't escape you again, did she?"

"What? No… Hana is with my parents!"

"Huh, come again?"

"He, he, yeah…" Ron gave her an embarrassed smile. "Well, that's the great thing: Mom and Dad are at some kind of meeting for adoptive parents of Asian kids or something… And of course, Hana's with the party."

"Oh…" Kim sat down on the couch, "And her big brother isn't?"

"Uh, well, that's another thing…" Ron took a seat on the couch next to Kim. "They _would_'ve brought me along, …but imagine what could've happened, if the people there had asked me about what I teach my little sister…! I mean, no one knows she's a ninja baby, …except for you and me, …my parents, …Sensei, Yori, …Monkey Fist, …who now is some kind of a stone slab…"

"Okay…" Kim interrupted him, "I got it. So, your parents left you at home alone, and you told me you had to babysit… Ron, Ron, Ron…"

"What?"

"I never thought you could be so... cunning…"

"Uh… you don't mean that… in a bad way, now, do you?"

Kim smiled, touched Ron's face with her hands and said: "Let me show you how I mean it…"

But shortly before they could kiss, a small hairless rodent hopped onto the couch between them and uttered a barely understandable: "Hey!"

"Aw, Rufus…" Ron said in an annoyed manner, „You're not the chaperone around here… Hey – by the way, there's cheese in the kitchen!"

"Yum, cheese!" Rufus squeaked and was up and away.

"Well done, Ron," Kim complimented, and they carried on right where they had been interrupted… They kissed, embracing each other, and Kim let herself slowly fall back onto the couch… But at that moment, a familiar beeping tone sounded. Kim was startled, and Ron fell off the couch.

"Oww!!"

"Sorry…"

Then, it beeped again, and Kim got her kimmunicator wristband ready, while Ron said in a disappointed way: "Aw man, why now?"

Before Kim pressed the button to accept the call, she replied: "Ron, you know, the world comes first…"

Then, when it beeped for the third time, she connected and asked: "What's the sitch, Wade?"

"Hey, Kim, I almost thought you wouldn't answer…" Wade said on the display. "I just got a break-in at… Uh, say, why are you sitting in the dark?"

"Uh… short circuit. A break-in? Where?"

„A secret lab of Global Justice, one that hardly anyone knows about, actually. I just registered the break-in via motion detector. Probably the guards positioned there won't be able to handle this, they're too small in number."

"Okay, maybe we'll get there in time… Where is this lab?"

"A few miles outside of Upperton. I'll send the exact position to the GPS in your car as soon as you go."

"Please and thank you! We're on our way!"

Kim was just about to disconnect, when Wade added: "By the way, I can't detect a short circuit, neither at your house nor at Ron's…"

"Say, Wade…" Ron, who had picked himself up off the floor by now, asked, "What in this world _didn't_ you wire?"

"Uh… you guys better get going now." That was where Wade ended the call.

"He's right, Ron," Kim said in a serious tone. "Go put on your mission outfit – I'll head home right away to put mine on and get the car keys. Meet me at my car, got it?"

"Uh, …yeah, got it, KP," Ron said with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

-xXOXx-

Only a short time later, the front door of the Possibles' house flew open, and Kim raced to her room upstairs like a rocket. Surprised, Kim's father looked out of the living room into the hall, then to the stairs and asked: "Kimmie cub, is that you?"

Kim's mother also peeked from behind the wall: "Everything okay, Kimmie?"

Kim's voice sounded from her room on the attic: "No time! Gotta go! Got a mission!"

Shortly after that, Kim raced downstairs again, wearing her new mission outfit, but before she had reached the still opened front door, her mother inquired: "And what about the little one?"

"She's with Ron's parents," Kim just answered quickly, without thinking. "Gotta go! See ya!"

And away she was. Kim's parents exchanged a confused look, then they both sat down on the couch in front of the TV again. But then, a thought struck Kim's father, and he said in a startled way: "Wait a second… If Ronald's parents took the baby with them, ...I deduce that Ronald was at home alone… and that means… OH MY GOODNESS!"

His wife patted his shoulder in a soothing way: "Honey, calm down…"

Mr. Possible's breathing went all shallow, but then he inhaled and exhaled deeply and sighed with relief: "Good thing they have to go on a mission now…"

Mrs. Possible gave her husband a strange look, then she went back to watching TV.

**End of Chapter One**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Well, yeah, that was the first chapter of my KP fanfic "Perfect Planning". I know, it was rather short. But don't worry, the next chapters will be getting longer eventually, and they'll contain more descriptions, too. This first chapter could be seen as a prologue as well. Or you could imagine it as the first scene of a KP episode, you know, right before the show's intro. So, enjoy the theme song "Call me, beep me" while you wait for my next chapter. ;) Okay, I honestly don't know when I'll get to upload the next chapter. Translating a written story is almost as much work as writing one. And like I said before, it isn't even completely written yet. But the first 6 chapters already exist in German, so I hope I'll get to translate them soon. 'til then, please review! I'd really like to know what you think of this story so far. Well, see you around! :)


	2. The Ability Transferator

AUTHOR'S NOTE – First of all, thanks to all the people who read and reviewed my first chapter and gave me such a warm welcome to the world of KP fanfic! Thank you very much: **CajunBear73**, **Kwebs**, **Flame Swordsman**, **screaming phoenix** & **Michael Howard**! I really appreciate it! And also thanks to those who put this story on their favorites list already (**Erzengel JPL**, **Flame Swordsman**, **Katsumara** & **kety**) and others who might have read the story without reviewing. Well, not much more to say, I guess. In case you're wondering where my disclaimer went, I always place it at the top of Chapter One of a fanfic only, but of course, it applies throughout the story. Okay, I'm not gonna babble any more right now. Enjoy Chapter Two! ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Two: The Ability Transferator**

The purple colored car raced across the asphalt into the North. Kim drove at full throttle and would not let herself be distracted by anything or anyone. She was really glad about being able to go to all the missions in her own car now, instead of depending on the rides that Wade used to organize for her. However, driving required fullest concentration from her, especially in her tuned car. That way she never even noticed that Ron was pretty quiet and only looked out of the passenger's window pensively all the time.

The ride from Middleton to Upperton usually took about ten minutes by car. Kim made it in less than four minutes. When she entered the town, she decelerated and glanced at the GPS. Wade had already seen to it that she would easily find the secret lab. After a few junctions, Kim already heard a low alarm sound – it must have been coming from the lab. And a short time later, they arrived at the remote building. It looked just about the same as any other secret lab she had already entered in her life as a teen hero: A great dome with a few smaller building complexes nearby. Kim parked on the roadside in front of the lab. She and Ron got out of the car and procured their entrance into the building with the help of Kim's "hairdryer".

Inside, the alarm was much louder. And as soon as Kim and Ron had slid down a rope through one of the windows, two guards were sent flying towards them, who they were able to evade just in time. Kim looked into the direction from which the defenceless guards had come. With a knowing smile, she shouted: "Nice welcome, Shego! So, what do you have to steal for Drakken this time?"

It really was Shego facing them, and indeed, she was holding a not further defined object in her one hand, in her other hand, the green plasma she had used to throw the guards off their feet seconds ago was still glowing. A few more guards lay unconscious on the floor behind her. "Now, that was a new record, Kimmie!" Shego replied in her typical taunting manner, ignoring the question about her loot. "Too bad I can't stay to chat, but you're just in time to see my exit!"

With that, she fired a green plasma ray in Kim's direction, but Kim anticipated it and evaded by doing a back flip. Then, she whirled around, quickly sliding forward across the floor, extending her leg to knock Shego off her feet. Shego tumbled backwards, but was able to catch herself with her free arm and started kicking around with her feet. Evading her kicks, Kim ran up to pull the stolen device out of Shego's grip with one jump. But Shego leapt into the air, leaving Kim empty-handed. As Kim lifted herself off the floor, Shego ran towards a rope hanging from a hole in the ceiling, through which she probably had broken into the lab.

Now, Ron went into action – or at least he tried. When Shego reached out for the rope, he raced towards her, trying to push her away with his elbow. He hit her in the stomach, which made her twitch at first. But he underestimated Shego's strength that allowed her to hurl him away at the very same moment. Ron landed roughly on the floor with a scream, and Shego fired another plasma ray at him, from which Kim quickly dragged him away. Now, Shego grabbed the rope, which was automatically pulled upwards. Kim jumped after her, trying to get a hold of her foot, but missed it by an inch. She broke her fall, turned around as quick as a flash and fired a grappling hook from her "hairdryer" at the hole in the ceiling, through which Shego was about to escape. But Shego warded off the grappling hook with a well-aimed kick and shouted at Kim from far above in a mocking way: "Later, princess!"

And with that, she was up and away on her flying device. Kim, who was still lying on the floor, with the grappling hook she had fired in vain next to her, grumbled something to herself, like she always did, when the bad guys got away. She picked herself up and brought the grappling hook back into her converted hairdryer by pushing a button on it. Now, Ron joined her and asked: "Everything okay, KP?"

"Yeah, sure… Except for Shego getting away, of course. What about you?"

"Uh, yeah, guess so."

-xXOXx-

Only a short time later, the alarm was shut off and the lights in the corridor turned on. Kim and Ron looked up in surprise at first, then in the direction of a large double door, where Dr. Director appeared with a couple of GJ men. "I'm glad you're here, Miss Possible," she said. "Were you able to prevent the robbery?"

"Afraid not, Dr. Director," Kim answered truthfully, yet with a hint of shame in her voice.

"Damn!" Dr. Director cursed. "I almost feared this outpost was not sufficiently secured. And I guess I'm a little late with reinforcements."

"What exactly has been stolen from here?" Kim asked.

"I'm going to explain it to you. Please follow me."

Kim and Ron followed Dr. Director towards a room at the end of the corridor, with a steel door that was originally secured by a scan field. This had been totally destroyed now, and the door had been massively damaged. Through the huge crack in the door caused by this, the three of them entered the small laboratory. In the middle of the room, there was a box made of safety glass standing on a platform, which had been broken as well. The box, of course, was empty.

"What used to be here was the prototype of one of our newest research projects," Dr. Director explained now. "The ability transferator."

"Ability transferator…" Kim repeated in a thoughtful manner.

"Okay…" Ron interfered. "Let's pretend I have no idea what that means..."

Ignoring Ron's comment, Dr. Director went on: "A handy device that can be used to transfer one person's abilities to another person."

"Cool!" Ron exclaimed and added in a lower voice: "… well, …I guess."

Kim inquired: "By that, you mean… physical or mental abilities?"

"Both of them," Dr. Director answered.

"Now, hang on there…" Ron interjected. "So, that means, if I used this thing to, say, transfer my abilities to Rufus… Could he swallow a whole Naco at once, then?"

"As if he couldn't do that already…" Kim retorted dryly.

On clue, Rufus peeked out of Ron's pant pocket and, rubbing his tummy, uttered a cheerful: "Yum, Naco!"

Dr. Director gave Ron and his naked mole rat a nonplussed stare, before she continued: "Our aim was to transfer the physical and mental abilities of our agents, soldiers and guards to new members of Global Justice. That way, we would be able to assemble a strong team within a short time on the one hand – and save us much time and money for their training on the other hand." She had said that last part in a lower voice.

"I see," Kim nodded and asked: "And have you achieved that aim?"

"Unfortunately, there were some problems…" Dr. Director went on. "We _could_ actually transfer abilities using this prototype… but after the transference – contrary to the way we planned –, they were completely taken away from the original ability owner."

"And that means…?" Ron asked, slightly confused.

"It means Drakken can do some pretty bad deeds with this thing…" Kim answered. Then, she turned to Dr. Director once more: "We'll do everything in our power to get that prototype back."

"Thank you very much, Miss Possible."

-xXOXx-

Some time later, Kim and Ron were sitting in the car again. Before driving off, Kim contacted Wade through the built-in kimmunicator system: "Wade, we need all the info you can get on the stolen ability transferator, and Drakken's whereabouts."

"Sure thing," Wade answered. "I'll see what I can find. Too bad you couldn't stop the robbery."

"It wasn't my fault!" Ron shouted all of a sudden. When Wade gave him a strange look, and Kim looked at him in a surprised way as well, he added in a laugh: "Uh, he, he… force of habit."

Then, Kim gently stroke his cheek and said: "It really wasn't your fault." To Wade, she explained: "We just didn't get there in time. Even though I raced as fast as the car allowed me to – without getting a ticket, either."

"Maybe you should've switched to rocket fuel," Ron grinned.

"I _did_ that, Ron."

"Okay…" Wade said after a short pause. "I'll call you back as soon as I know something." With that, he disconnected, and Kim drove off.

On the way back, Kim drove at normal speed. Now, they were no longer in a hurry, she thought. However, she could not help but notice Ron's quietness this time. For the whole ten minutes, he did not make a sound. Kim did not really have an idea what was going on with him, though. Maybe he was just a little disappointed about them not having been able to stop Shego and would be more talkative again later.

-xXOXx-

When they arrived at Ron's house, he really seemed happier again, as he noticed: "Hey, looks like my parents aren't back yet."

"Well, it's still pretty early, I guess. We weren't away for long, either," Kim simply replied.

A moment of silence occurred, when Ron's glance darted around in an uncertain way. Finally, he asked with a little hesitation: "Um, KP… Do you… wanna come in again for a little?"

Kim sighed and said: "I don't know, Ron. Actually, I'm pretty worn out. And… Wade could call back any moment."

"Huh, guess you're right…" Ron agreed in a low voice and thought for a while. "We could just, you know… kick back, watch a movie, …'til my parents come back."

Kim glanced out of the window thoughtfully, then back at Ron who gave her an incredibly cute smile. Kim smiled back, turned off the engine and said: "Okay, convinced."

**End of Chapter Two**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Well, that was Chapter Two. Hope you liked it. Still not very long, I know, but as I said, the chapters will be getting longer, gradually. I hope I did an okay job writing about the fight against Shego. As I said, I'm not that good at writing fight scenes, let alone in English. It was really hard to find words for that, that's why the process of translating was a long one. I also tried to improve it a little, but without changing too much about it.  
A little bit of Trivia: It took me a long time to find a name for this fanfic. It wasn't until I wrote Chapter Six (in German) that I came to think of "Perfect Planning" as a title. First, I only used "The Ability Transferator" as a working title. That's why I wanted to keep that as a chapter's title. You'll find out more about this device I made up in the next two chapters. Not so sure how long it'll take me to translate the next chapter, but I'll do my best. Stay tuned and please be patient. See you around! :)


	3. There's Something in the Air

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks to all the people who read and reviewed Chapter Two! I'm so glad to see most of those who reviewed Chapter One again, along with a few new readers! Thank you so much: **CajunBear73**, **Kwebs**, **screaming phoenix**, **Donteatacowman**, **MrDrP**, **Michael Howard** & **CaptProd**! I'm really flattered by all the compliments I received from you. Now, since MrDrP has mentioned it in his review, yes, I do intend this piece of fanfiction to be like a classic KP episode, and I'm glad to hear I'm doing a good job on this so far. I must remind you, though, that this story _will_ contain a few scenes that aren't all that typical for a classic KP episode (near the end of this chapter, for instance) – well, and there already was one of these in the first chapter, I guess. Or could you imagine Kim and Ron making out (or trying to) at Ron's place in a real KP episode? I don't think they'd ever show such a scene. Anyways, I'm still trying to keep the original KP feeling in this story, nevertheless. Now, on to Chapter Three (nominated for lamest chapter title ever)! ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Three: There's Something in the Air…**

The huge sign in front of the snow-covered ridge reading "Secret Lair" was just way too conspicuous. Shego could not help but curse about it every time she returned to said lair. If Dr. Drakken asked _her_ – but of course, he never did –, they would have searched for a new and _real_ secret lair without conspicuous signposts a long time ago. She would certainly change a lot – and for the better –, also concerning the plans for world domination. But she was "only" the sidekick after all and was not allowed to speak her mind. Though there _were_ certain ways for her to give him a piece of her mind. But for now, like always, she would wait for the self-proclaimed super genius and super villain to explain his most recent scheme to her first, before criticizing it right away.

A few minutes later, Shego entered the laboratory of Dr. Drakken, the biggest room in the whole lair. Drakken was standing in front of a blackboard, which he had filled up with his indecipherable scribbles that were supposed to portray some brilliant plan. When he noticed Shego, he turned around to face her, kept his hands folded behind his back and grinned: "Ah, Shego, so you're back… And I hope you've brought me something…"

Shego approached him and said in a sarcastic manner: "Yes, Dr. D, here's the toy you wanted."

"Toy?" Drakken shouted indignantly. "Toy?! This is a high tech device that will enable me to finally take over the world!"

"Oh, so, how come it looks like a water pistol?" Shego grinned and held the stolen object out in front of him. Indeed, it did have a certain resemblance to a water pump-gun, something kids would love to use in order to spray each other wet.

Drakken stared at the device in a dumbfounded way shortly, then grabbed it and said: "Well, you know, Shego: Never judge a book by its cover. Or in this case, a weapon by its design."

"Yeah, well, okay. Then why don't you just tell me what this thing can do…" Naturally, Drakken had once again never even bothered to tell her what exactly she was supposed to steal for him in advance.

In the same sure of victory, triumphing voice he always used in moments like this, Drakken explained: "With this ability transferator, I can improve my physical and mental abilities by far! I will acquire all the superpowers, fighting techniques and ways of thinking I need to once and for all defeat Kim Possible and force the world into submission!"

Interrupting his evil laughter that followed his rant, Shego uttered a bored: "Oh yeah, you don't say…"

Drakken went silent and started grinning in a diabolical way: "You don't believe this will actually work, Shego, do you…? He, he, I'll gladly give you a brief demonstration…" He aimed the ability transferator at Shego and pulled the trigger.

"What the…?" At that moment, a yellowish orange ray emerged from the ability transferator and hit Shego with full force. She was sent flying onto the floor and surrounded by a ray of light for several seconds. Then, the ray disappeared, and some sort of a pump on the device started flashing in a yellow light. After that, a valve on the rear end of the pump opened, and the ray of light was now surrounding Drakken.

Shego uttered a painful sound and lifted her dazed head to watch what was happening. Drakken let off another evil laughter and shouted in triumph: "Yes! It works! Just watch this, Shego!"

He made some sort of a throwing movement in the direction of the blank wall, sending a green plasma ray out of his hand, which tore a big hole into the wall. Shego was shocked: "This… wait, that's… THOSE ARE _MY_ POWERS!!"

She picked herself up off the floor – which seemed improbably hard to her – and ran towards Drakken in sheer anger: "Those are MY powers!! Give me back my powers at once, Dr. D, or I… I… I will… I…" Shego let her lifted fists sink again and appeared totally insecure – a more than unusual sight.

Drakken triumphed again: "Ooh, that's magnificent! That thing not only copies abilities, it steals them!" Then, he grinned at his helpless sidekick in an amused way: "What, Shego? What are you going to do now?"

"I… I… I have no idea!" Shego stuttered. And suddenly, her voice sounded totally desperate: "What do I normally do in such situations?! I don't know! There's nothing I _can_ do! I can't even think straight!"

"Oh, but _I_ know exactly what I'm going to do now! Yes, that's it! First of all, I'll search for a new secret lair – a _real_ secret lair! And then, nothing can stop me – MUAHAHAHAHAHA! Huh, it all works even better than I thought!"

-xXOXx-

On the next day in Middleton, where no one suspected any of the events happening in Drakken's lair, Ron was sitting at a table at Bueno Nacho and poked about his grande-sized Naco menu unenthusiastically, while Rufus greedily jumped onto – or rather plunged into – the meal. Ron had a day off, while Kim worked at "Club Banana" that Saturday morning. Actually, they had arranged to meet for lunch at the mall, but Ron had left his house one hour earlier already, as he could not take being alone with his thoughts any longer. First, he had just been driving around aimlessly on his scooter. Then he thought that a grande-sized Naco menu might help distract him or even cheer him up, but he was wrong.

Still, Ron could only think about the past evening. After he and Kim had returned from the mission and he had successfully convinced her to stay with him for a little longer, they had cuddled up on the couch together to watch a movie – but Kim had fallen asleep after about ten minutes. He had not thought she could actually be that tired after the mission. Or maybe it was just because he had picked one of those _Bricks of Fury_ action movies…

Anyways, Kim had not woken up until the movie was over and Ron's parents returned. After that, Ron had spent at least five minutes justifying himself to his parents, even though they did not freak at all. And why should they – after all, nothing had happened. But that was exactly what was troubling Ron.

"Aw man, everything could've been just perfect…" Ron wailed, though he was actually talking to himself more than anyone else, as Rufus did not listen anyway. "My parents weren't home, I didn't have to babysit, and Kim… Kim was in that mood… and me, too. But naturally, Wade had to beep her – and we couldn't even accomplish anything!"

He sighed and supported his head with his hands. "I mean, Kim and I have been dating for a pretty long time now – but we've never been _really_ alone yet," he went on. "We've actually never talked about that yet… And I don't mean to push her, either. But yesterday, to me, it seemed like _the_ perfect time to…" Only in his thoughts did he complete that sentence, smiling to himself dreamily.

But soon, he hung his head even lower in disappointment, until he borrowed his face in his arms on the table and sighed: "But probably, we'll never even get this far, because we're never ever gonna be undisturbed…"

Several minutes later, someone suddenly poked his shoulder. Ron's head shot up, and he looked all around him. Beside his table, Ned, the Assistant Manager of the Bueno Nacho restaurant, was standing and asked his regular customer in an almost concerned way: "Hey, Ron, what's up with you?"

"Uh, …what's up? Nothing… What… should be up with me?" Ron stuttered and brought himself back into a somewhat upright sitting position.

"Well, you've been sitting around here for, like half an hour, depressed, lamenting to yourself, and you hardly touched your Naco menu," Ned described the observations he had made from behind the counter.

"Um, you know… it's… well, it's about Kim… I… Wait – What did you say, how long have I been sitting around here already?" He glanced at his watch and gasped: "Oh man, Kim and I wanted to meet at the mall, like now!" He stood up, grabbed Rufus and raced out of the door with a: "Gotta go!" Ned looked after him in a confused way at first, then shrugged and returned to the counter.

-xXOXx-

When Ron finally arrived at the mall with his lame scooter and rushed inside to "Club Banana", Kim was standing outside of the store, waiting with her arms folded. Next to her, her friend Monique was standing, who seemed to say something soothing to her at that moment.

"Ron, finally!" Kim exclaimed when she saw him. "I've been waiting for fifteen minutes now!"

"I'm sorry, KP," Ron said when he was standing in front of her. "I… I guess I overlooked the time. You know, I just went to Bueno Nacho, and…"

"So, you have already eaten?" Kim asked in a confused way. "But we were going to have lunch, remember?"

"Uh, no, I… I _wanted_ to go to Bueno Nacho, that means… I…"

"It's okay, Ron. Actually, I… wanted to tell you that Monique got the afternoon off, too, and we wanted to go shop around…"

"I... Oh…" Ron uttered in disappointment.

"Well, you can join us, if you want…"

"Nah… that's okay. Just go ahead… I mean, I don't wanna push you – uh, I mean… I don't wanna be pushy…"

Kim lifted one eyebrow in a questioning way. "You okay, Ron?"

"Yeah, sure… I'm great, he, he… I mean, I don't like to go shopping anyway. You know, shopping is a girl thing, he, he…"

"O-kaaaay… See you later then, huh?"

"Yeah…"

Kim gave him a peck on the cheek and added: "See ya."

Monique also said: "Bye, Ron."

As the girls went ahead, still looking back at him for a little while, he waved at them and shouted with a forced smile: "Yeah, bye, Monique. Later, KP…"

-xXOXx-

After their little shopping tour, Kim and Monique were sitting at a snack bar in the mall and allowed themselves some refreshments. When Kim had been looking down at the floor and poking about her salad for a whole while already, Monique stopped eating and asked: "Okay, girl, what's eatin' ya?"

That totally disrupted Kim's thoughts: "Huh, what?"

"Well, back at work you said you were gonna talk to me later. So, why don't ya?"

"Oh, right. Well, it's… about Ron."

"Just what I thought. That boy's train has totally jumped its tracks again…"

Kim sighed: "And I think I know why… You know, Monique, last night, Ron and I were at his place… alone."

Monique's eyes went wide, and she gasped: "Did you…?"

"No – Wade beeped me."

"Oh."

"And Ron was trying so hard… He even put up candles."

"Ron? _Your_ Ron?"

"Yeah, I never would've expected that, either… But well, Ron's full of surprises," Kim said in a dreamy voice. Soon, however, she went back to normal and continued: "But as I said, Wade beeped me. So, we got going right away, trying to stop a break-in into a secret lab – without success, unfortunately. Then, we went back to his place, and Ron asked me if I wanted to come in again for little…"

"And then?"

Kim pulled a face: "Then, Ron inserted _Bricks of Fury_ I-don't-know-which-part into the VCR."

"Oh gosh – no way!"

"Oh, yes way! I mean, first, when he convinced me to just watch a movie or something, that was so cute… Actually, after that mission tanked, I just wanted to head home, take a shower and relax. But then, somehow I just thought, maybe there's a chance we'd get into that mood again…"

"Not a chance, with those bricks!"

"And besides, Wade could've beeped me again. Still hasn't, though. Anyways, Monique, the point is: When there's a sitch, I, well, I switch – but I think Ron can't do that. And that's probably the reason why he's still so disappointed."

"Gotta be straight with ya, Kim…" Monique said in a serious voice. "_This_ ain't the prob here. The prob is, there could be a sitch _anytime_. Wade often beeped you in your sleep, and countless times when you were at school. Did it ever cross your mind that he could just as well beep you, when you and Ron…"

"Oh gosh… now that you mention it… No, that never even crossed my mind before," Kim confessed. After a short pause, she sighed: "Guess it's about time I talked to Ron about it…"

"You guys never even talked about it yet?!"

"Don't freak, Monique. Remember, it took us a long time to talk about our feelings for each other, too. I always think… when the moment is there, we'll notice…"

"…that neither of you is prepared."

"I _am_ prepared, Monique!" Kim protested, and in a considerably lower voice, she added: "Well, if _that_'s what you mean: I've… been on the Pill for a few weeks now."

"Well, that's a start. Does Ron know?"

"No. I'm gonna tell him about that, too. Best thing to do, I'm gonna talk to him right away, as soon as I see him – no matter what…" Suddenly, Kim's kimmunicator wristband beeped, and as if on reflex, she immediately connected: "What's the sitch, Wade?"

Monique folded her arms and mumbled to herself: "Somehow, I get Ron's point. That's gotta be one major turn-off…" Of course, neither Kim, nor Wade overheard that.

Wade spoke through the kimmunicator: "Kim, I've got some good news and some bad news."

"Okay, good news first."

"I've got the infos about the stolen ability transferator prototype."

"You rock, Wade! And the bad news?"

"Well, I haven't been able to track down Drakken yet."

"What?!"

"Yeah, I know, it's just weird. Normally, tracking him down is a pushover. And I had almost managed to locate the signal – it seemed like it was coming from his lair in the mountains."

"The one with the huge sign that reads 'Secret Lair'?"

"Exactly. But suddenly, I had lost the signal! And when I tried again, all I got was static! I could never even hack into the security system of Drakken's lair any more!"

"You mean, he made an all-over security upgrade? That's just so not like Drakken!"

"I tried to avoid the static and get into his system all night long – not a chance!"

"Huh, then I guess, Ron and I better go check that out…"

"Okay, Kim. I'll keep trying to locate him."

"Thanks, Wade. And on our way, you can fill us in about the prototype."

"Sure. Talk to you later."

At that, Kim disconnected and looked up at Monique – who was still sitting there with her arms folded, giving her a strange look. Kim ignored that and said: "Well, you heard it, Monique. I gotta go and tell Ron."

"Well then, I'm not gonna stop ya," Monique replied in a slightly bored tone.

Kim got up and added: "And thanks for listening, Monique. See ya!"

As Kim got going, Monique turned around in her chair and shouted after her: "And don't forget what _else_ you were gonna tell him, Kim!" But she was not sure if she still heard that.

**End of Chapter Three**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – See, I promised the chapters would be getting longer. (I didn't plan that for the Author's notes, though…) Hope you liked it. Now, when I first wrote this chapter for the German KP forum, I did get one or two reviews with some criticism about the girls' talk. So, I'm prepared for any kind of flaming. ;) No, seriously, I "warned" you about a few not entirely "Disney-ish" or "KP-like" scenes, and I do think the rating is chosen correctly. Apart from that, I tried my best to kind of "defuse" this chapter in the first place. But what troubled me even more was "Moniquespeak". I don't know if I'm even close to mastering it in English… So, sorry if she sounds way off. (Thanks for the little help there, Michael! ;))  
Oh, about the "'splainin'" or "Dad time" CajunBear73 mentioned, I guess I kinda forgot about that when I first wrote this story… or I didn't know how to include it. And I kinda thought, Mrs. Dr. P. soothing her husband in the end of the first chapter might imply she'd be able to "reduce the damage". Well, let's just say I'll leave that to your imagination.  
As for the "Secret Lair": It's supposed to be the one we see in "So the Drama". I have no idea where it really is supposed to be, but in my story, I placed it not too far away from Middleton, I can tell you that already. I know, Drakken does have a lair in the Alps that looks pretty similar (but doesn't have a sign, as far as I remember). But seeing as in StD, Kim and Ron didn't seem to have any trouble reaching said lair and getting Kim's Dad back home, I'd say it would make sense if it wasn't that far away. Okay, enough babbling for now. I'm trying to get Chapter Four up ASAP. Please be patient! Take care and see you around! :)


	4. An Explosive Situation

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks to all the people who read and reviewed Chapter Three! I really appreciate all your comments! Thank you so much: **CajunBear73**, **DrakkenFanboy**, **xyzisme**, **Kwebs**, **screaming phoenix**, **Michael Howard** & **bthecatslayer**! As for the way Drakken appeared in my last chapter, xyzisme pointed out something to me here, so I just wanted to explain that to all of you: True, Drakken normally wouldn't be so mean and take away Shego's abilities. But at first, Drakken didn't know the ability transferator takes abilities away from the other person, he thought they'd only be "copied". So, he didn't intend to steal Shego's abilities, he just wanted to prove a point to her, as she didn't seem to believe him. Now, along with her abilities, he also acquired her (evil) ways of thinking. And we all know that Shego's mind works _way_ more evilly than Drakken's. Now, imagine Shego's ways of thinking here: If Shego had just stolen someone else's abilities that appeared to be far better than her own (theoretically), would she give them back? The answer would be: No, she wouldn't. That's why Drakken wouldn't, either, now, and that's why he seems so very evil. Sorry if that wasn't entirely clear before. Now, on to Chapter Four! ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Four: An Explosive Situation**

Kim had only rushed back home to change, let her parents know and pack all the stuff she would need for the mission, then she was up and away again to find Ron. She did not have to search for long, as Ron was sitting at home in his room on the attic, brooding over the same things again. When Ron first heard steps coming up the stairs, he thought his father or mother might be wanting something. That almost made him shout in an annoyed way that he wanted to be left alone, but that very moment, Kim appeared in the hatch, asking: "Ron, are you there?"

Just then, she caught sight of him sitting at his desk and turning around to face her. "Oh hey, KP!" Ron said, being in a considerably better mood than the second before right away. "What's up?"

"Wade just called back. Pack your winter clothes, we have to go check out Drakken's secret lair in the mountains."

Ron's smile disappeared, but he did not let her notice, when he inquired dryly: "The one with the huge sign?"

"Yes, exactly. So, hurry up now! Meet me at the car outside."

Shortly after that, she already disappeared again, heading downstairs, so Ron only shouted a halting "Alright, KP!" after her, before getting ready for the mission.

-xXOXx-

Now, they were on their way. It was not all that far to Drakken's "secret" lair, about one hour by car at normal speed – Kim's car, of course, made that faster. However, the way through the mountains was too steep, so they would park the car rather far away and cover the rest of the distance walking or using their snowboards. Of course, Kim could also switch to rocket fuel to fly into the mountains rather than drive, but she preferred not to draw too much attention to them, in case Drakken was really there.

When they had been driving at full speed – without using rocket fuel – for a while already, Kim slowed down to normal speed in between in order to contact Wade through the built-in kimmunicator system: "Wade, we're on our way. So, what did you find?"

"Like I said, I've got all the infos about the stolen prototype by now. First of all… that's what it looks like." With that, Wade projected a photo onto the display in the car.

"That looks way cool!" Ron exclaimed enthusiastically.

Kim's glance went back and forth between the street and the display about every other half second – like always when Wade showed her something while she was driving –, and then she replied dryly: "Looks like a water pistol."

"Really?" Ron said confused. "Oh, okay, now that you say it… To me, it looked kinda like a taco with a…"

"Ron," Kim interrupted. "I don't even _wanna_ know! Wade – go on."

Now, Wade reappeared on the display and said, while typing something on his keyboard: "Comparing it to a pistol is not all that wrong, Kim," Now, a green screen appeared, showing a three-dimensional model.

"Actually, you aim it at the person whose abilities you mean to acquire, just like a gun, and pull a trigger, …" At that, the trigger in the depiction flashed in a brighter green color shortly.

"…then, it emits an energy ray that scans the targeted person's brain for their abilities, …" Now, the ray was depicted in a green color.

"…that ray takes up the abilities and stores them in some sort of a pump, …" The pump in the depiction flashed in a brighter green color for a while.

"…and finally, the abilities are transferred into the brain of the person who pulled the trigger." The last depiction showed how the ray emerged from the rear end of the pump again.

Kim thought for a while. "What about that interim storage in that pump?" she then inquired.

Wade reappeared on the display and explained: "It's like some sort of a registry. Every bundle of abilities that has been transferred is documented in there. It looks like you can even read on a display exactly whose abilities have been transferred to whom afterwards."

"Could be useful, I guess," Kim remarked. "That way, we'll know whose abilities had been transferred to Drakken, and it'll be easier to give them back to their original owners."

"Yeah, but it's not all that simple," Wade agreed, hesitating a little. "If one and the same person acquires multiple persons' abilities, only the most recently transferred bundle of abilities can be transferred again. So, you'll have to keep to the documented order."

"Ooh, entering complication nation!" Ron interjected.

After a while, Kim asked Wade: "Dr. Director mentioned that both physical and mental abilities were affected. What exactly happens during the transference?"

"The energy ray makes use of the junctions found in specific areas of the brain," Wade answered and now projected a model of the human brain onto the display, in which mainly frontal areas and also some other regions had been marked in color. "Namely those responsible for the so-called procedural memory and the executive functions."

Ron pulled a face: "Could you translate that?"

"Huh, I think I've heard something like that before," Kim pondered. "Maybe from my Mom. As a neurosurgeon, she knows about brain functions, after all. But I better leave the 'splainin' to you, Wade."

"Okay, the procedural memory stores certain motions that had been learned through long practice and that become second nature over time. Like for driving a car or for certain fighting techniques, for instance."

"Ahaaa…!" Ron's voice sounded as if inspiration just struck him. "Then, Kim must have a badical proceed-uh-thingy…! So, what about the ex… excess… uh, the other thing?"

"The _executive_ functions…" Wade corrected, "…are responsible for several mental abilities, like for example advance planning, attention, concentration, self-control, logical thinking…"

"All the things Drakken never even heard of," Kim deduced with a grin.

Wade continued: "Additionally, the ability transferator is very sensitive for finding activity in brain areas that aren't activated in normal people – that means, for superhuman abilities or superpowers."

"Cool!" Ron interrupted.

Wade ignored that and added: "What isn't affected, for instance, is the long-term memory. Episodic memories or knowledge aren't transferred. When someone's abilities have been taken away, the memory of the abilities that used to be there still remains, even the memory of _how_ they had been taken away – but you're no longer able to apply them. Well, those are all the infos about the prototype for now."

"Okay, thanks, Wade," Kim said. "Any news about Drakken?"

"Sorry, not yet, Kim. But I'm on to it."

"So are we. I'll call you back when we arrive at the lair." With that, Kim ended the call for now.

Ron clutched his forehead with a pained expression: "Ooh, I think all that brain talk gave me some serious brain pain…!"

Kim rolled her eyes shortly and then stepped on the gas again.

-xXOXx-

About a half hour later, they had reached the mountains. Kim and Ron had put on their jackets and skiing pants, along with their helmets, and Kim was also wearing multifunctional skiing boots. She could not only use them with her snowboard, at the push of a button, they could be turned into mountaineering boots or skates with built-in rocket propulsion. They both stuffed their snowboards into their backpacks, and equipped with Kim's "hairdryer", they were on their way.

After some more or less exhausting minutes of climbing – to Ron more, to Kim less –, they were standing on top of a hill in the middle of the mountains, from where they had a good view of Drakken's lair. Kim peered through a special pair of binoculars that was connected to Wade's system. She looked at the conspicuous sign first, then at the area beneath them and asked: "What's the sitch here, Wade?"

"I'm getting access to Drakken's security system again, at least restricted. No traps to be found outside of the lair. No sensor beams, no avalanche triggers, nothing like that at all. You shouldn't have any trouble getting into the lair. I can't tell you about the inside until then, though."

"Okay then, we're going in."

Before Kim put the binoculars back into her pack, Wade reminded her: "And don't forget the new function of your jackets."

Kim and Ron looked at their jackets. Since only recently, each of them had two white cords with two little balls of different colors attached to the breast pockets. The ball at the end of the one cord was red, the other one was blue. Ron asked with a curious expression: "What are they for again?"

Before Kim could even answer, he had already pulled at the cord with the red ball – and in the next moment, his jacket and skiing pants had been stretched about five times in volume! Kim looked pretty surprised when Ron was balancing on the spot in the snow, looking like a huge ball with outstretched arms. "Uh-huh…" Ron said in a slightly annoyed tone. "Air bags, padding,… _something_ like that."

Kim pulled at the cord with the blue ball on Ron's jacket, and before he even knew it, his winter clothes went back to their normal conditions – which made him fall over backwards into the snow: "Whoa! Ouch!"

With a stifled giggle, Kim offered him her hand to pull him back to his feet. Ron gave her a strange look, then he glanced at the two cords on his jacket once more and asked: "And what happens when I pull the blue one _first_?"

Kim quickly got a hold of his hand that was about to grab the other cord and answered: "It'll make the winter clothes light and thin. Better not touch that before we're inside. Come on, let's go!"

They unpacked their snowboards, and Kim jetted downhill right away. Ron tried hard not to fall behind that much – both in the figurative and literal sense.

-xXOXx-

It really had been quite easy to get into the secret lair. Kim and Ron packed their snowboards and helmets away again and glanced down the empty corridor. It was so quiet, they could hear the wind outside. It all reminded Kim of the time when Drakken had "dadnapped" her father to here, and not one sign of the villain's presence had been left behind, except for a hologram and some traps. Back then, Drakken had unfolded a plan that ingenious, not even Kim had been able to figure it out. That way, he had almost succeeded in razing the world to the ground with an army of cybertronic robots. What, if he was one step ahead of them again this time? Kim did not like that thought at all. She activated her kimmunicator wristband: "Wade, we're in. No sign of Drakken yet."

"Let me double-check that…" Wade said and typed something on his keyboard. Kim bent her arm, holding it in front of her at the height of her chest, and from the side of the wristband, a reddish, almost invisible beam of light emerged that went down the corridor and expanded to the walls on both sides. After a few seconds, the beam contracted again and disappeared back into the kimmunicator wristband. Wade made an analysis on his computer.

"Corridor's clean," he reported finally. "No traps and no one there, either. At the far end, there's a double door that leads to Drakken's lab, as far as I know."

"Okay, then we'll go check it out. Let us know when you notice something." This time, Kim did not disconnect, so that Wade could continue analysing the lair at the same time. To Ron, she said: "We should be prepared, though, in case Shego or an army of synthodrones appears…"

With that, she pulled at the blue cord of her jacket, and in the next second, her winter outfit was light and tight-fitting, almost like her battlesuit – but without additional functions. However, it gave Kim way more room to move for a fight than her normal jacket did.

"Wow!" Ron let out.

Kim turned to him with a questioning look: "What? Spankin' new function, huh?"

Again, it just escaped Ron: "No, I think that looks just ho…t-uh, badical!" And that was when he blushed.

Kim smiled shortly. But that smile disappeared soon and she simply said, pointing to the end of the corridor: "We better keep going."

While Kim turned around to get going, Ron tried to concentrate again as well. First of all, he pulled at the blue cord of his own jacket. In the blink of an eye, his winter outfit became tighter. Ron twitched and winced: "Oww, too tight!"

"Ron! Come on now!" Kim shouted back over her shoulder from further ahead.

Still with a painful expression, Ron took a step forward, but then pulled at the red cord of the jacket. Immediately, his outfit turned back to normal. "Huh, that's better. Well, a little."

"Uh-huh!" Rufus agreed in an anguished tone, as he had not liked the sudden tightness of the pant pocket in which he resided, either.

Kim had almost reached the end of the corridor by now and waited for Ron, a few feet away from the large double door. The last time they had been sneaking through that corridor, suddenly a trapdoor had opened beneath them. This time, no such thing happened. Even the numerous large windows they had passed did not reveal anything. The whole lair seemed to be abandoned, indeed.

"This is a 10 on the weirdness scale…" Kim muttered, when Ron finally appeared. She shortly turned around to face him and asked in a confused way: "And that's not too warm for you?"

"Who, me? Duh, no… Uh, I'm cool!" Ron grinned, slightly embarrassed.

"Well… then let's see how we can get in there – whoops!" Kim had taken a few steps forward, and the double door already slowly opened automatically. She and Ron exchanged a confused look, then shrugged and entered the large room behind the doors. This looked more like a cave than a laboratory – and was completely empty as well. Except for an object in the form of a big crate covered by a green blanket that was to be seen in the middle of the room. Kim kept standing in the doorway, Ron a bit in front of her.

"Something's completely off here…" Kim said thoughtfully. "No traps, the doors opening automatically,… That's almost as if Drakken had sent us an invitation that we never got…"

"Maybe it got lost in the mail…" Ron suggested. Kim gave him a strange look. "What?! Could be, right?" Ron justified himself, then he rubbed his hands in a joyful manner: "Ooh, if he invited us, I'm sure he left presents for us! There!" he pointed. "Under that blanket!"

"Ron, that's…" Kim started in an annoyed way, but halted. While Ron approached the covered object, she noticed something. All of a sudden, there was a low, strange beeping sound… _beep_ – one… _beep_ – two… _beep_ – three… every other second, as it seemed. Kim reached for her kimmunicator wristband: "Say, Wade, you hear that, too?"

"Yeah, Kim… and it doesn't sound good…"

At that moment, Ron had reached the object, pulled away the blanket and shouted in a confused tone: "What kind of a present is _that_?"

Whatever the crate that had come into view now contained – it was the source of the beeping sound. Kim's eyes went wide in shock: The beeping was accompanied by a display – _beep_ – 0:20 – _beep_ – 0:19 – _beep_ – 0:18 – …

"Get outta there right now!!" Wade screamed.

"Ron!!" Kim ran for him, pulling at the red cord of her jacket to make it go back to normal while running. Ron froze at the spot. As soon as Kim had reached him – the double door started closing! One push of the button on her glove, two pairs of skates emerged from Kim's skiing boots, the rocket propulsion hissed, Kim took Ron over her shoulder and zoomed off – just through a small crack between the doors! They raced along the long corridor, the skates went fast – but did they go fast enough? The exit came into view… They had almost reached it… Just then…

KABOOM!

The explosive in Drakken's lair went off, the shock wave hurled Kim and Ron outside. They went flying through the air. Only with great effort, Kim could still keep hold of Ron. There was smoke all around them, Kim closed her eyes tightly to small slits. The snow-covered ground came closer – and closer, faster and faster.

"Ron!" Kim shouted at the top of her lungs. "Pull that red cord!!"

"Wha…?!"

Kim immediately pulled at the cord of her jacket that now inflated, along with her skiing pants. That way, her arms were pushed aside, she lost her grip around Ron. She still heard his scream, fading away. She could almost touch the ground. She closed her eyes.

"Oof!" Kim hit the ground, bouncing off a few times – the inflated winter outfit almost worked like an air bag. Finally, she came to a stop, and at that, her outfit automatically emitted all the air again slowly and went back to normal. Kim remained motionless, lying on her back in the snow for a while.

All dazed, Kim slowly opened her eyes and clutched her head. She felt pretty strained, but not injured. Cautiously, she sat up and blinked a few times. _She_ seemed to be okay.

"Ron?" she asked and looked all around her. She did not see him. At least not in her nearest surroundings.

"Ron?" she shouted again, a little louder this time – and a little more scared. No reply. Kim picked herself up off the ground and looked all around her again.

"RON?!"

**End of Chapter Four**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Ooh, a cliffhanger! Am I mean? Sorry if I am. I do hope you liked this chapter, though. I wasn't so sure about the use of Ron's "badical" and Kim's "spankin'", since there are no real German equivalents for these phrases. But I felt like including them, so, I hope that was okay. (Thanks again, Michael, for giving me some advice on that! ;))  
As for the "brain talk", it was really hard to translate that part. But I hope it was all clear and helped explain things a little more, like Shego's behavior in the last chapter. Just a teensy bit of simplified knowledge I got from my psychology lectures at university… I just HAD to include that, because that was actually how I came to think of the "ability transferator". And I'm sure Wade the super genius knows about this stuff, too. ;) Talking about Wade, the new function of Kim's and Ron's winter clothes was, of course, my idea as well (and it was hard to translate, too). ;)  
Now, like always, I'm not sure when I'll get the next chapter translated and uploaded. The following weeks are gonna be pretty stressful for me, especially around August 1st. I might not even have access to the internet for a while then. But we'll see what I can accomplish until then… By the way, I'm also trying to illustrate some of the scenes from my story. So far, I only sketched two scenes from Chapter One, but you can check them out in the Scraps / Scrapbook on my deviantART page (the URL can be found on my profile). Well, so much for now. Be patient, take care and see you around! :)


	5. What is Perfect, Anyways?

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks to all the people who read and reviewed Chapter Four! I'm glad to see you still enjoy my story! Thank you: **screaming phoenix**, **CajunBear73**, **MrDrP**, **Kwebs** & **Michael Howard**! I'll take a little piece of advice from MrDrP and try to cut back on the Author's Notes. Sorry, I know I babble too much! Well, I personally enjoy reading Author's Notes, getting some more insight into the author's ideas and such… But if you think they're distracting, I'd say it's quite easy to ignore them. Just read what's between the lines of X's and O's I always use, and they won't disturb you. ;) Well now, enjoy Chapter Five! ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Five: What is Perfect, Anyways?**

At an unknown place – so unknown and so well secured that not even Wade knew of its existence –, Dr. Drakken was sitting in his new secret lair at an enormous system full of buttons, levers and monitors. After having acquired Shego's abilities with the help of the ability transferator, for the first time in his life, he had a real plan – not counting the one with the cybertronic robots that failed, and of which he would never speak again… Suddenly, he was able to think a few more steps ahead than before. Before, he had only known that he had to have the ability transferator stolen for him. But what he could do next and what consequences his actions might have, had been unimaginable for him before the ability transference.

Suddenly, he had realised that the first step towards conquering the world was searching for a new secret lair that was not already known to anyone – especially not to Kim Possible or Global Justice. It also hit him that he had no idea about his henchmen's abilities – except for abilities like lolling around, eating or asking for their next salary increase or vacation. Never before had it occurred to him that they could prove to be quite useful – after all, he would have never even dreamed of asking Shego or his crew for advice on his evil schemes, either. As it turned out, his henchmen really were complete idiots and their abilities more than useless – but one of them was in contact with several computer and high tech experts online. That way, Drakken had been able to upgrade the old lair's security system and set up his new secret lair accordingly. Of course, he also could have sent for some of these super geeks to literally make use of their abilities… but it had been more important to go into hiding as soon as possible first. He would be able to get more abilities soon enough, and he already knew exactly where…

It was all so easy! And the best of it all: He would finally be able to get rid of Kim Possible once and for all! The flashing of a blue lamp starting off at that moment told Drakken about the success of his plan. "Ha! It's the signal!" Drakken rejoiced in a villainous manner. "The explosion occurred! Kim Possible and her buffoon took the bait!"

He rubbed his hands with an evil grin and continued in a lower voice, ranting more to himself: "No goodbyes to the teenage arch-foe, no escape – to heck with antiquated villain traditions! Just an explosive charge and a countdown, activated by motion detection inside the lab…"

While Drakken already enjoyed his triumph, Shego crouched at the opposite wall on the floor, her arms around her drawn up knees, rocking back and forth apathetically. Her scared look was fixed upon the ability transferator that was lying immediately next to Drakken. In a tremulous voice, she muttered to herself: "I want my abilities back! Gotta get to that somehow… But how?! If I just grab that thing… What if he'll notice? What am I gonna do?! It's driving me crazy!"

She could not think straight, could not concentrate. The certainty of having lost her abilities – to _Drakken_ – and the incapability of being able to do something about it left her entirely helpless. She was never even able to suppress these feelings of helplessness! It was really bound to make her crazy in the long run! She was only able to watch as he made use of _her_ abilities, _her_ ideas, _her_ planning ahead…

Now, Drakken operated several levers on his system, glanced at one of the monitors that was still turned off with an expectant look and continued to grin to himself: "Let's see if anything's still going on…"

-xXOXx-

Back at the place where Drakken's "secret" lair in the mountains used to be, smoke was still rising. If there was anything still left inside the lair, it was ablaze. Somewhere on a rock face, a good distance away from the explosion, a hidden camera was activated. It was as white as the snow surrounding it – perfectly covered. And as it had not even been activated until that moment, Wade had not been able to detect it before.

Kim was not aware of the camera, either. She was busy finding Ron. Apparently, he had not landed in the valley, like she had, and he had not reacted to her shouting. While aimlessly running around, searching for him, she started blaming herself. Why had she failed to make sure _he_ could land safely first? Why had she just said "Ron, pull that red cord!" and then let go? What if the "air bag" installed in Ron's winter outfit had not opened in time? Gradually, she really started worrying about him…

Then, there was a beeping sound. Kim was startled shortly, but it was just her kimmunicator wristband. She connected, but was tongue-tied at first. So, Wade was the first to speak, visibly and audibly relieved: "Kim! Thank goodness, I almost thought you guys didn't make it…"

"Wade," Kim interrupted him. "I have to find Ron…" She could hardly keep her voice from trembling.

"Oh… gosh… Hang on, just a second…" Wade was typing on his keyboard like crazy. Fortunately, Ron was still chipped… In no time, Wade had located him: "3 o'clock!"

Kim looked to her right and saw nothing at all first, except for white snow. Then, her gaze went up the hill, until she noticed a shadow. There he lay, on top of a snow-covered ledge!

"Ron!" Kim ran up the hill, as fast as she could. From down below in the valley, she would not have spotted Ron so soon, as the ledge almost covered him. The further up she ran, the clearer he came into her field of view. Ron was lying on his stomach, his face in the snow, his arms out-stretched. His winter clothes were in their normal conditions – all she could do was hope that they had only changed back after the impact, just like hers!

As soon as she had reached him, Kim let herself fall onto her knees in the snow beside Ron and turned him around on his back, placing his head on her lap. Holding him close with her one hand, she used the other hand to stroke his face. "Ron? Ron, do you hear me? Please, say something!"

At that moment, Rufus crawled out of Ron's pant pocket and uttered a few anguished sounds. "Rufus!" Kim exclaimed with relief. Not only because Rufus was okay. For that also meant that Ron's outfit had been padded at the impact!

Now, Ron also showed a sign of life. With a low groan, he slowly opened his eyes and spat out some snow: "Eww, those nacos are frozen…"

Kim sighed and smiled at that utterance. She was just relieved to see he was okay. After a few seconds, Ron was fully conscious again. "KP!" he shouted happily, sat up again with one jump and flung his arms around Kim's neck. Kim managed to keep her balance and returned the embrace. They stayed like that for a few more minutes, before getting up and setting out, arm in arm, for the hard way back to the car.

-xXOXx-

The descent through the mountains took pretty long and was very tough. Though they both were unhurt, Kim and Ron had to support each other virtually all the time. After all, the explosion and the impact did have an effect on them. When they were finally sitting in the car again, at least Kim seemed to feel better again immediately. She did not turn on the engine yet, but she contacted Wade through the built-in kimmunicator system again. He started by expressing his relief again: "I'm so glad you guys are okay!"

"Yeah, I guess the winter outfits saved our lives," Kim explained. "That was pretty farsighted of you, Wade."

"Well, I guess my sight didn't go far _enough_," Wade replied in an apologetic way. "If I had known Drakken set a trap for you, I never would've sent you there!"

"It's just _so_ not like Drakken – at all…" Kim said thoughtfully.

"That's true!" Wade agreed. "Not only that he didn't keep with villain tradition by not sending a final message before the explosion. But also the way he upgraded his security system! I wouldn't have noticed the bomb until after the countdown started. Obviously, it had been activated by motion detection in Drakken's lab. When you were standing in the doorway, everything was still okay. But when Ron approached the bomb…"

"Aw, come on, now it was my fault, huh?" Ron interrupted indignantly.

"Ron, nobody said that…" Kim tried to soothe him. "If _I_ had gone first, the countdown would have been activated, too. Right, Wade?"

"Exactly," he confirmed.

After a while, Kim pondered: "I'm sure Drakken thinks the explosion hit us. I'm really wondering what he's up to now…"

"About that…" Wade typed something on his keyboard. "I actually just got on Drakken's trail again!"

"Really? Spill it!"

"Tonight, there's gonna be a party for inventors at a five-star hotel in Vancouver, Canada. The whole thing is called 'innovation party'. And it's only for invited guests who also have a reservation for a room at the hotel that night. I managed to hack into the hotel's system to get a look at the guest list. And you won't believe who's on it… One Dr. Slipky and one Ms. Oghes – of course, anagrams for Lipsky…"

"…and Shego!" Kim finished for him.

"Drakken and Shego at a party for inventors?" Ron asked in a confused way. "What did _they_ invent, I'm asking? All they do is _steal_ other people's inventions…"

"I guess that's what they're gonna do at the party," Kim said dryly.

"Or steal abilities from the inventors present there," Wade suggested.

"Could be…" Kim replied. "But isn't it weird that they went to the trouble of getting on the guest list? I mean, they could just break in, like they always do…"

"Maybe they wanna infiltrate the party guests first, to see which abilities are most useful," Wade said.

Kim became more and more thoughtful: "I really don't like this. First, it was as if the earth had swallowed up Drakken, and now it's so easy to track him down again. Could that be another trap?"

"I think that's pretty improbable," Wade answered. "Like you said before, he surely thinks the explosion has served its purpose."

"Well, there's only one way to be sure," Kim said. "We'll get to Canada as fast as possible! When does the party start?"

"10 p.m., local time."

"I think we can make it. If Drakken and Shego got on the guest list, I'm sure _we_ will, too – right, Wade?"

"I'll see what I can do…"

"Please and thank you! Talk to you later!" Kim disconnected and started the engine.

Now, Ron began to speak again: "I still don't get _how_ Drakken and Shego got on the guest list…"

"I don't know. Maybe they just got a room reservation at the hotel…"

Ron pulled a face: "Drakken and Shego…?! Wrongsick!"

Kim tried to ignore that comment. With a "Let's head for Canada!" she stepped on the gas.

-xXOXx-

As the sun was almost setting already when they got going, and the way to Vancouver was pretty far, Kim drove using rocket fuel at maximum speed, with her fullest concentration. She even let the car take off into the air a few times to make headway faster. Nevertheless, it took them a few hours to reach the Canadian border, and only then, Kim switched off the rocket propulsion again. Now, it would only take a little more than a half hour to reach Vancouver. After the tiring journey at break-neck speed, Kim had almost reached the threshold of unsuitability for driving, but she never even considered taking a break before they would arrive at their destination. However, there was something that drew her attention away from the road for fractions of a second. And when she risked a short glance to her right from the corners of her eyes after a while, she knew what it was.

It was Ron. Once again, he had spent the whole journey quietly sitting in the passenger's seat. Of course, he had not wanted to distract Kim while she was driving at rocket-like speed. But even now at normal speed, he did not dare speak to her. However, since they had passed the Canadian border, he had been fixing her with a thoughtful look continuously. Something was on his mind, and Kim was 99 percent sure that it had something to do with the subject she had meant to talk about with him in the early afternoon already. Nevertheless, she just looked to her side shortly first and asked carefully: "What's the matter, Ron?"

Without batting an eyelid, Ron answered her question with another question in a serious tone: "KP, how do you do that?"

"How do I do _what_?"

"Always being fully concentrated, no matter what. It's like you have some kind of a switch somewhere, and you just flip it when there's a sitch."

Kim hesitated shortly. "What can I say, Ron? When there's a sitch, I _have_ to concentrate."

"Yeah, but…" He sighed. "We could've been _toast_ today! I just don't get it how you can still totally keep your head in the game after something like that."

"Well, you know… 'I can do anything'."

At that, a few seconds of silence occurred again, during which Kim pondered if that had really been everything that was on his mind. Ron also pondered… tensing up in his seat unsurely, his gaze darting around. Finally, he continued: "And then there's something else, KP…"

"Yes?" She shortly glanced at him again, with an expectant look.

"It's about… last night…" he started hesitantly, "…when we …when we were alone …at my place …on the couch, I mean that …that was nice, wasn't it? And then …then Wade beeped, and you were like…"

Kim sighed and said: "Ron, I… I _know_ what this is about. And I know it's troubling you. I really wanted to talk about this with you, when we have time, but…"

"_When_ we have time!" Ron interrupted her in a worried voice. "Now, here's the problem! We _never_ have time, because there could be a sitch _anytime_, and then we gotta get going right away, and you're switched to sitch right away, and I… well, I'm not." Somehow, he had the feeling he might have spluttered too much again and Kim might be annoyed.

"Ron, you're exaggerating again…" Kim said, quite calm actually. "I'm sure we can talk about it some time – maybe not right now. And we do have a lot of time…"

"But last night…" Ron interrupted again, this time in a very disappointed tone. "We were _alone_… It would've been just _perfect_…"

Kim gave him a short compassionate look, when she noticed how he hung his head, and said: "Oh, Ron… what is perfect, anyways?"

At that, Ron lifted his head again, looked straight at her and replied in a serious voice: "Well, _you_ for instance, Kim. _You_'re perfect."

This time, Kim could not help but look at him a little longer and smile: "Aw, that is _so_ sweet of you!"

"KP, I really mean it!" Ron emphasized. "You're just perfect in _every_ way and you really _can_ do anything. And if I was only _half_ as perfect as you are, I probably wouldn't be brooding so much over things and would know how to keep my head in the game, like you."

By now, they were only a few miles away from Vancouver. Except for them, there was no one on the street at that time. And if Kim had not been so touched by all the things Ron just said to her, and if she had not been driving her car for hours already, she certainly would have noticed the razor-sharp metal spikes that suddenly emerged from the asphalt a short distance away…

As soon as Kim turned her gaze back to the street, there was a bang, and the car started skidding. As if on reflex, Kim fully slammed on the brake, grabbed the steering wheel, trying to keep the car on the street. But she lost control over the vehicle and came off the road. Ron already screamed in panic and held his arms up in front of his face protectively. Kim pulled the emergency brake, gritted her teeth and closed her eyes tightly. In her thoughts, she already saw them crashing into a tree. But gradually, the car slowed down, stopped skidding, and finally they came to a stop – without crashing into anything. Ron stopped screaming, slowly taking his hands off his face, and Kim also opened her eyes again. She sighed with relief, when she noticed that the car had not fallen over, and everything seemed to be okay – except for the broken tires, of course.

However, Kim now glared at Ron and hissed: "Ron, the next time you wanna tell me I'm perfect and I can do anything – please, _don't_ do it while I'm driving!"

Ron gulped.

-xXOXx-

After a few seconds – which seemed like half an eternity to Ron –, the first moment of shock had been over. Only now, Kim really got aware of what she had just said. Actually, she really was not mad at Ron, but more at herself. _She_ should have paid attention to the road! _She_ should not have let herself be distracted! And probably, it really would have been better, if she had at least taken _one_ single short break. But – like on every mission – she had only thought of being there as soon as possible and had totally forgotten that her attention and powers of concentration were not unlimited after all. Ashamed, she turned her head to the other side and sighed: "Oh Ron, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to yell at you!"

Ron, who was still a little scared after Kim's angry outburst, cautiously leaned forward in his seat and said hesitantly: "That's okay, KP. I know, it was my fault. I shouldn't have distracted…"

"No," Kim interrupted and looked at him again, now with an expression full of remorse. "It was _my_ fault. After all, I knew what was troubling you all the time, and I should've talked with you about it for a long time. And besides, _I_'ve been driving."

Ron wanted to add something to that, but at that moment, Kim placed her hand on his shoulder in a soothing way and emphasized once again: "So, it was _not_ your fault."

That caused Ron to give her a subtle uncertain smile, which Kim returned. Then, she pulled back her hand and said: "I'm gonna check out the damage."

With that, she took off her seatbelt, opened the driver's door and got out. They had come to a stop in a meadow about half a mile away from the street, near a forest. It had gotten pretty dark already, but the lights of Vancouver were shining not too far away. Kim walked around the car to take a close look at the damage. Only the four tires had burst, but apart from that, everything seemed to be okay. However, she knew they did not have four spare tires with them. Kim got back into the driver's seat and contacted Wade through the kimmunicator system: "Wade, does the car have a self-repair function, by any chance?"

Wade gave her a short surprised look and answered: "Uh… no. At least none that I know of. I guess you'd have to ask your brothers about that, but I don't think so. Why?"

"It's… a funny story," Kim began hesitantly. "It looks like there really _was_ a second trap set for us. And I raced straight into it. The tires are broken, all four of them."

"You've got to be kidding!" Wade gasped. "What happened?"

"I didn't pay attention to the road for one moment…" Kim told him truthfully. "And then, right before we reached Vancouver, I guess something was lying on the street, I ran over it, lost control of the car, next thing I know, we were in the ditch."

"Gosh… but you're okay?"

"I think so," Kim answered and looked over at Ron. "Are you, Ron?" Just now, she noticed she had not asked him that before.

Ron was caught off guard again: "Uh, what? Yeah, I'm okay."

"Good," Wade sighed with relief. "I'm gonna see to it that someone will fix your car. Can you go back to the place where you left the road? Then, I can take a look at that."

"Alright, Wade. Talk to you later." With that, she disconnected, then she and Ron got out of the car and were on their way back to the road.

**End of Chapter Five**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Hope you liked this chapter. It was one of the hardest to write, both in German and in English. Originally, when I first posted it in the German KP forum, it ended after the sentence "Ron gulped." And the following paragraph should've been the beginning of Chapter Six. But my readers didn't like Kim's angry outburst in the end, and eventually, I didn't like it any more myself. So, I added this one paragraph to Chapter Five, to make clear that Kim's first reaction just happened out of shock. No real cliffhanger here that way… ;)  
By the way, this chapter's title, _What is Perfect, Anyways?_, was my second "working title" for this story, after _The Ability Transferator_. But I'm glad I found a better one.  
Well, as you can see, the chapters really _are_ getting longer now (even without taking the Author's Notes into account ;)). And Chapter Six will be even longer than this one! But I honestly don't know when I'll get to translate and upload it. As I said, the next few days and (maybe) weeks are gonna be pretty stressful for me… So, please be patient. Take care and see you around! :)


	6. One Night in Vancouver

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks again to all the people who read and reviewed Chapter Five:** CajunBear73**, **screaming phoenix**, **Kwebs**, **Katsumara**, **xyzisme**, **Michael Howard** & **CaptProd**! You're really flattering me with all those compliments! So sorry I let you wait so long! This is the longest chapter so far, and the next chapters will be almost as long. It takes a lot of time to translate and proofread chapters of this length… so I got a little help. ;) A very special thanks to my new beta reader **Michael Howard** (who already provided me with a little help before) for helping me improve parts of my translation! Well now, enjoy Chapter Six! ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Six: One Night in Vancouver**

It was not all that easy to find the place where they had come off the road again. Firstly, because Kim had not even seen what she had run over, and therefore did not know exactly what to search for. And secondly, because by now, more cars were driving around than before. Since the Innovation Party would start in half an hour already, it was possible that some of these drivers were people still on their way to the hotel. Kim and Ron were slowly walking along the roadside in the direction they had come from by car, trying not to overlook anything. They surely had covered a mile already. Kim almost thought they might have missed the place, but then she stopped all of a sudden and motioned Ron to do the same. There was something strange on the asphalt, something that did not seem to have been there all the time. Looking over Kim's shoulder in a curious way, Ron asked: "Found something, KP?"

"Maybe…" She reached into the side pocket of her mission outfit and pulled out an object which she gave Ron, saying: "Go put up the warning triangle back there, so I can take a closer look at this without getting run over."

"Uh, okay…" he answered in a slightly confused way and gazed at the folded up warning triangle in awe, even while he was walking further down the street.

Kim watched him go with an amused smile, shaking her head. Once she was sure he remembered his task, she set foot on the road and crouched down to have a good look at what she had seen. There was a narrow black plate, but its length almost took up the whole width of the lane, and its color hardly stood out from the asphalt. Kim frowned briefly and contacted Wade through her kimmunicator wristband: "Wade, I think I found something here. Take a look at this."

She held the wristband in a way that allowed Wade to see the peculiar plate. "Huh, that looks strange…" he replied thoughtfully. "Let me scan that."

A reddish beam emerged from the side of the kimmunicator wristband, when Kim moved her arm alongside the plate a few inches away from it. The beam disappeared again, and Wade typed something on his keyboard. "There's something under it…" he finally said. "It's a row of sharp metal spikes that can be extended or retracted by an internal mechanism. Pretty ingenious system… Apparently, it's remote-controlled and connected to a surveillance system."

"Surveillance system, huh?" Kim repeated thoughtfully and looked to her side. On the side of the road, exactly on a level with the plate, there was a quite thick fern plant. Just when Kim got up to take a closer look at the plant, Ron came back – and almost would have stepped on it, if Kim had not given him a sign to stand still. Kim bowed down to the plant, and Ron did the same. Then, Kim pulled the plant to the side and revealed a small green camera.

"What's your take on this, Wade?" Kim asked into her kimmunicator wristband and held it in a way for Wade to see the camera.

"Just like I suspected!" Wade answered. "Unfortunately, the camera is no longer activated, so I can't track back from where it has been controlled."

"Too bad," Kim replied. "Looks like someone turned extremely clever…" With that, she and Ron got up again and were on their way back to the car. On the way, Kim added: "One thing's for sure now: Somehow, Drakken must have known that we survived the explosion."

"Maybe he also had a hidden camera there, and he activated it only after the explosion via remote-control," Wade suggested. "I should've checked that…"

"Who could've known?" Kim replied. "I guess Drakken must've stolen a lot of abilities already…"

"You should be prepared for the worst," Wade said. After a short pause, he added: "By the way, a tow truck should be coming to take your car to a repair shop any minute."

"Very good! And how about the innovation party?"

"You're on the guest list!" Wade answered and added hesitantly: "Well, of course not with your real names. And it wasn't all that easy…"

"How do you mean?"

"Well, the guest list was full already, and the hotel is completely booked out tonight. So, I couldn't add any more names to the list, when I hacked into the system. I almost thought I'd have to remove someone else from the list. But once I was in the system, I was also able to intercept e-mails to the hotel. A few hours ago, two guests wanted to write they can't come at the last minute. So, you'll just go to the party using their names."

"Sounds good, Wade. Then we'll get ready for the party right away. I'll call you back when we arrive at the hotel." With that, she disconnected.

"Do we even have suitable clothes with us?" Ron asked her then.

"I'm sure there's some stuff for undercover missions left in the car," she replied.

When they got back to the car shortly after that, Kim checked out their baggage immediately. Indeed, apart from the winter clothes, she found several other outfits, along with various purses, a few wigs and even a fake beard. Under one of the back seats, there also was a small suitcase with a combination lock, in which she just packed everything they had with them. After all, she did not necessarily want to leave all their stuff behind in the repair shop, either.

"I think it's best to get changed already, so we can be dropped off at the hotel right away," Kim said, when she had stowed away all their stuff, and she went for the edge of the forest with the suitcase in her hand.

"Gotcha, KP!" Ron said in a light-hearted way and followed after her. At least until Kim was about to disappear behind the bushes and turned around once again to look at him questioningly: "Uh, Ron… better watch _out_ – got it?"

Ron blinked briefly, wearing a confused expression, then he got the message: "Uh, yeah, right. Sorry, KP." Slightly embarrassed, he turned around and whistled a tune, while Kim got changed.

A short time later, Kim reappeared, wearing a strapless bright violet dress with a horizontal neckline that also covered her upper arms a little bit. The bottom of the dress was cut diagonally, so that it almost reached her ankle on the one side and narrowly her knee on the other side. With that, she wore matching shoes, a simple necklace with a light blue gem, a matching purse and a black wig with a bun hairstyle worked into it.

Now, it was Ron's turn, and Kim was standing guard. She was looking from one side to the other, always keeping an eye on the cars passing by on the distant street. After a while, she shouted: "Ron, hurry up! I think the tow truck is coming."

"More or less finished, KP!" Ron answered hastily, and in the next moment, he reappeared beside her, wearing a somewhat presentable dark blue suit with a white shirt and a red bow tie. He was just trying to attach the fake beard that was a little bit darker than his blond hair. However, the beard slipped off on one side, as soon as he let go of it. Kim helped him fix the beard, then she picked up the suitcase, and they returned to the car, where the man from the towing service was already about to meet them.

-xXOXx-

At precisely 10 p.m., the tow truck that had loaded Kim's car stopped in front of the hotel that had about fifteen stories. Kim and Ron, who were sitting on the passengers' seats in the driver's cab, gazed out of the window in awe. While Ron almost got stuck on the window, Kim turned to the driver immediately: "Thanks again for dropping us off at the hotel, Mr. Leary."

"Oh, that's no problem at all, Miss Possible," the lean man with the light brown thinning hair and moustache answered. "After all, it was you who saved our nation from the maniacal Dr. Drakken awhile back."

Like always, Kim replied: "No big!" After a short pause, she asked: "When do you think the car will be ready?"

"I'll take your car to Wheeley's garage on the next street. Good old Mr. Wheeley will certainly take a look at it tomorrow morning."

Kim was almost a little shocked when she inquired: "Only tomorrow morning?"

Ron also turned around with a start and said in a huff: "Maybe that Mr. Wheeley _forgot_ we once saved his nation?!"

Kim looked from Ron to Mr. Leary quickly and gave the latter an apologetic smile.

"Well, that was more than two years ago by now, and Mr. Wheeley only came to Canada last year," Mr. Leary carefully explained and then added: "But maybe I can put in a good word for you."

"Thank you in any case," Kim said, before she and Ron got out of the truck, and Mr. Leary drove off again.

Ron shook his head in disbelief again and said: "And I guess that Mr. Wheeley doesn't even remember we saved the _world_ several times, either…?"

"Now, let it go, Ron," Kim soothed him. "We'd better make sure that we can join the party to get Drakken and Shego." With that, she pressed a button on her kimmunicator wristband to contact Wade again: "Wade, we're at the hotel now. What are our names for the party?"

Wade, who was already in his pajamas by now, answered: "Mr. and Mrs. Brinestoop."

Kim just pulled a face briefly and replied dryly: "What a name…"

Meanwhile, Ron's eyes went wide, and he stuttered: "Uh, just a second… Does that mean, we… we're… married?!"

"That doesn't bother you, or does it?" Wade asked and explained right away: "Like I said, there was no other way to get you on the guest list, because every guest must be linked to a room reservation in the hotel. That way you don't even have to pay for the room or anything, because according to the hotel's database and the e-mail I intercepted before, the Brinestoops already paid in advance. And the hotel would only have refunded, if their cancellation had arrived at least 24 hours ago."

"Rich people, I suppose. I guess they don't mind," Kim just commented. "Okay, then we'll be going in now." With that, she ended the call and stuffed the kimmunicator wristband into her purse, as it could look too conspicuous with her dress. When she looked up at Ron, she noticed that he still wore a quite dumbfounded expression. Therefore, she asked him, slightly concerned: "Ron, is anything wrong?"

"No, no, everything's fine!" Ron answered, but he hardly managed to keep the nervousness out of his voice. "I mean, there's nothing to it… After all… we _are_ a couple, right? Then I'm sure people will buy that we are… well…"

"…a _married_ couple?" Kim finished the sentence for him. Then, she placed her hand on his shoulder in a soothing way and added: "Relax, Ron. It's just another undercover mission. You know: Just until we've found Drakken and Shego."

Ron took one deep breath and smiled. But then, he noticed: "But we're not even wearing rings…?" With that, he pointed at his other hand questioningly.

Kim pulled back her own hand and looked at it for a second, but then she shrugged and said: "No one will notice. We just won't point our fingers at anyone."

"Hey! But we could use those magno rings!" Ron grinned at that.

Kim shook her head with a frown and answered: "Very bad idea!" Soon, she smiled again and presented her arm to Ron, saying: "I'd prefer to go inside now, …Mr. Brinestoop."

Now, Ron smiled as well, offered his arm to Kim, so she could take it, and replied: "With pleasure, …Mrs. Brinestoop."

Arm in arm, they marched towards the glass entrance of the hotel.

-xXOXx-

As soon as they had entered the lobby, an impressive sight met their eyes. The enormous size of the entrance hall, the noble furniture, the ornaments on the walls, as well as the numerous chandeliers on the high ceiling conveyed incredible luxury. For a long time, Ron could only utter low, squeaking sounds. Meanwhile, Kim discovered the reception desk at the end of the hall and not far from it, there was the entrance to a ballroom, with a tall, muscular man in a suit and sunglasses standing in front of it. Probably, he saw to it that no one except for party guests entered the room. Kim discreetly jostled Ron to wake him up from his amazement and whispered to him: "Ron, I think we should check in… Uh, hello, Ron?"

When he was still tongue-tied, Kim just pulled at his arm firmly to make him go to the end of the hall with her. Once there, Kim quietly cleared her throat and spoke to the lady at the reception: "Uh, good evening. We …have a reservation. The name is Brinestoop."

The elegantly dressed woman with glasses, who wore her dark brown hair in a bun, typed the name into her computer and looked at the monitor thoughtfully. For a short moment, Kim feared that something might have gone wrong. But she knew that they could always count on Wade, and soon, the lady reacted positively: "Ah, Mr. and Mrs. Brinestoop, there you are. The party has already begun, but don't be concerned: You're not the last guests to arrive."

She turned around to the key shelves which were completely empty except for two. From one of these two shelves, she pulled out a piece of paper and two keys. She lay the piece of paper down on the desk, exchanged a brief confused glance between Kim and Ron and finally pointed at an empty line near the bottom of the form: "If you would please sign here…"

Kim just put down the small suitcase she was still carrying in her free hand on the floor, then without hesitating, she gave her signature – of course, using the name "Brinestoop". At that, the lady handed her one of the two keys, kept the other in her palm with a questioning look and suggested: "If you wish so, I'll have your bags carried up to your room, so you can join the party immediately."

Kim put the key she had received into her purse, briefly looked at the small suitcase at her feet and then said hesitantly: "Uh, sure. Thank you."

The lady smiled briefly, rang a bell and added: "Enjoy yourselves!"

While a hotel employee took care of the suitcase, Kim and Ron slowly moved towards the ballroom. A little unsure, they shortly stopped once again in front of the entrance, but the man immediately stepped aside and motioned them to enter.

-xXOXx-

The huge bright ballroom made a no less luxurious impression. Quite close to the entrance, a band was playing classical dance music. Behind the band, there was a small stage, with a banner hanging above it that said "Innovation Party". Very few guests were dancing in front of the stage, many were sitting at the tables further away talking, and others were standing in the middle of the room, where a huge buffet was served. That sight finally broke Ron's overwhelmed state of mind and captivated him immediately. "Ooh, what a huge buffet!" He grinned happily and dragged Kim off in that direction right away.

While Ron tucked in at the buffet and also gave Rufus some tidbits in a more or less discreet way, Kim stopped to stand near him and have a careful look around the whole room. After a while, she noticed thoughtfully: "Huh, something's really wrong here!" She pulled the kimmunicator wristband out of her purse, discreetly holding it in her hand, speaking into it in a low voice: "Wade, there's no one here who even looks like Drakken or Shego. Somehow, I can't help but feel this is all just a diversionary maneuver."

"Maybe they'll just turn up later," Wade suggested. "But it really is weird…"

"_If_ this is meant to be a diversion, than it's a pretty clever one," Kim replied. "It looks like we're stuck here now, because the car won't be repaired before tomorrow morning."

"And once again, we have no idea where Drakken _really_ is," Wade added. "Of course, I could look for a ride for you, anyways… Though your former drivers have pretty much withdrawn, ever since you got your car, and I can't even get a hold of them any more at night. Huh… maybe Global Justice can help…" He typed something on his keyboard and waited for a few seconds. But then, he noticed in a confused way: "Funny… No one answers in the headquarters!"

"Maybe it's just interference on the line…" Kim suggested.

"Seems more like a deliberate interference to me," Wade answered. "I'm gonna try again a few times, but if there's still no answer then, I guess I'm gonna have to make sure everything's alright over there…"

Ron, who now stood at Kim's side again, asked in a surprise: "What, you mean, _in person_?"

"Extreme situations require extreme measures," Wade grinned. "In any case, I'll call you back tomorrow morning, when your car is ready. By then, I'll certainly know what's up with Global Justice."

"Alright, Wade. We'll keep our eyes open here, just to be sure." With that, she disconnected, put the wristband back into her purse and sighed: "I can't believe Drakken played us _again_!"

Ron looked at her with a slightly concerned expression, then he briefly cleared his throat and said with a subtle smile: "Well, …we should make the best of it."

Kim was surprised when he held out his hand to ask her for a dance. But of course, she accepted his offer with pleasure. When they had been dancing closely for a while already, looking at each other in a lovey-dovey way, Kim whispered: "You know what this reminds me of?"

A bit unsure, Ron asked: "Uh… you mean the actuary meeting that bored you to death?"

Kim shook her head with a smile and answered: "No… I mean the prom…"

Ron looked surprised for a moment, then he also smiled: "Oh… yeah, right."

And just like back then, they stopped to stand in the middle of the dance floor, locked in embrace, looking deep into each other's eyes, forgetting everything around them for a moment. Slowly, both closed their eyes, while their lips drew closer to each other… But shortly before the kiss, Kim suddenly pulled back. Ron's eyes opened with a start, and he asked: "What's wrong, KP? Do I have nasty breath or something?"

Kim answered in a slightly embarrassed way: "No… It's just… Your fake beard stings…"

"You don't have to tell _me_," Ron replied. "That thing's been itching like crazy ever since we went to the party!" With that, he no longer suppressed the urge to scratch his face and said: "I can't help but think I'm gonna break out in a rash from that… I'll go check this. Be right back!"

While Ron left the room to go look for the rest rooms, Kim got a glass of water and helped herself at the buffet a little. Her glance went through the room once again and came to a stop at the stage, where a middle-aged man, who was holding a glass of red wine in one hand, was just speaking into the microphone: "My dear Ladies and Gentlemen, may I ask for your attention? My name is Dr. Henry Argyle, and I am very proud to be the first to introduce an absolute novelty to you tonight – an innovation for every household! For that reason, I would like to ask one of you to join me on this stage…"

He let his gaze wander through the room briefly and finally pointed his hand at none other than Kim, saying: "How about you? The delightful lady in that beautiful violet dress?"

With widened eyes and almost in a choked voice, Kim inquired: "Me?" The other guests already started clapping, and so, Kim saw herself virtually forced to march onto the stage. Nervously, she stopped to stand next to Dr. Argyle and looked at the audience.

"Dear Ladies," Dr. Argyle continued. "How many times have you already been annoyed by seemingly insoluble stains on your best dresses?" At that, without warning, he spilled some of his red wine on Kim's dress, which gave her a start. But before she could say anything, Dr. Argyle already shouted into the mike: "Don't worry, this is just what my own invention, the _stain magnet_, is for!"

With his free hand, he pulled a metallic disc out of his inside pocket. "Just like a magnet, it'll draw _any_ kind of stains out of all sorts of clothing _immediately_ – and even out of your hair! Please forgive me my mishap, my dear lady…" And in the next moment, the remaining red wine was spread out over Kim's black wig. But Dr. Argyle, without batting an eyelid, handed her the "stain magnet", saying: "Try it yourself! You'll be amazed!"

Kim felt totally stupid, when she held the "magnet" onto the stain of red wine on her dress unenthusiastically. After a few seconds, she pulled the "magnet" away again – but the stain was still visible. A wave of outrage spread across the room, and Dr. Argyle whispered with an embarrassed glance to the side – but through the microphone, it was still clearly audible: "Oh, I guess I should've tested it for red wine first…"

Furiously, Kim gave him back his invention and left the stage, grumbling to herself: "Great! Why is it that almost every dress I wear gets ruined?"

When she stomped towards the entrance, Ron just returned and asked in a shocked manner: "KP, what happened?! I've only been gone for a minute, and…"

"The party's over, Ron!" she told him dryly, and they both left the ballroom.

-xXOXx-

The room was on the tenth floor, number 1024, quite close to the elevator. While Kim unlocked the door, Ron pulled at his fake beard, saying: "Now I can finally get rid of this thing!"

"_Great_ inventors, indeed!" Kim kept criticising. "No wonder Drakken didn't really mean to steal anything from them!"

Kim opened the door, switched on the lights, and while they both entered the room and let the door fall shut behind them, they gazed in awe at all the luxury that met their eyes once again. This hotel room was almost as big as Kim's room on the attic and filled with the most splendid furniture. Right next to the door, there was the bathroom, which seemed to be very big as well and could be entered through a door around the corner. Facing the door to the bathroom, on the right wall of the room, a double bed was standing, with both a nightstand and a reading lamp on each side. On the opposite wall, there was a TV set standing on a bureau, and further back in the room, near the window, there were two armchairs with a small table and a huge wardrobe.

Ron just dropped the fake beard onto the floor and was now wandering about the room beaming: "Wow, that's got style! Huge TV, minibar…" He opened the small closet that came into view behind the bureau with the TV set and gasped: "…with _three_ x-large packs of peanuts!"

"Yum, peanuts!" Rufus peered out of Ron's pocket on cue, but Ron quickly shut the door in the rodent's face. Then, he turned around for the bed, took a deep breath and then exclaimed with joy: "And… chocolate on the pillows!"

Kim rolled her eyes at Ron's fit of childlike wonder, went towards the bed and seized its left side by placing her purse on the nightstand and putting her kimmunicator wristband into one of the drawers. "Whatever," she commented, while she took off the red wine-soaked wig. "I'll go take a shower real quick. I think the wine trickled through the wig down to my hair…"

Before she could enter the bathroom, she heard Ron's light-hearted voice once again: "Hey KP…"

"Yeah?" Kim asked, turned around smiling and noticed that Ron had ridded himself of his coat, jumped onto the bed and looked at her with an expectant grin.

"Can I have the chocolate on your pillow?" he finally asked.

Kim stopped smiling, dropped her shoulders and answered in a bored tone: "Yeah, sure." With that, she disappeared inside the bathroom.

When Ron had put away the two tiny bars of chocolate, suddenly his eyes went wide and he gasped. Now it hit him: "Hang on… This… This is just… perfect!" In the next moment, however, he became thoughtful again: "But… something's not right…" When he looked around the room once again and his gaze fell upon one of the two armchairs, he noticed the disturbance: "Rufus!"

The little rodent, that lay sprawled across the armchair, looked up questioningly when he heard his name. "Hey, buddy," Ron whispered. "Would you do me a favor? When Kim comes outta there, …could you maybe disappear into the bathroom?"

The naked mole rat crossed his tiny arms in a huff, sulking: "Uh-uh! No way!"

Ron thought shortly, then he suggested: "You can have _all_ the peanuts from the minibar!"

At once, Rufus squeaked happily: "Yum! Okay!"

At that, Ron grinned to himself for a while, but soon, he started worrying again: "Oh, what am I talking about…? We're actually still on a mission…"

In the next minutes – that seemed like hours to him – Ron nervously went up and down the room, trying to distract himself. Once he turned on the TV, once he looked out of the window, then he played around with the lights, until he finally left only one of the reading lamps on, later he wandered up and down again. And just as he sat down on the rear edge of the bed again and considered turning on the TV once again, he heard Kim's voice that said in an almost dreamy tone: "Hey Ron… What's the sitch?"

Ron turned into the direction of the bathroom and almost fell off the bed at the sight. His eyes went wide and his jaw dropped, when he saw a seductively smiling Kim standing in the door, wearing a hotel bathrobe made of silk. While he was still speechless, Rufus scooted into the bathroom unseen, carrying three packs of peanuts in his mouth, and slowly pushed the door shut from the inside. At last, Ron stammered: "K-K-KP! You, uh… I, uh… I mean… Wow!"

Kim slowly approached him and said, using the same tone as before: "Well, you said we should make the best of it…"

"Uh, yeah… I did!" Ron stuttered nervously. "But… but what… what, if Wade…?"

When she was standing in front of him, she placed one finger on his mouth and whispered: "Not before morning…"

"Are you sure?"

"_Absolutely_." She smiled at him, and when Ron returned the smile, Kim turned off the lights.

**End of Chapter Six**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – …well… I'll leave the rest to your imagination for now. Let me just add that Kim and Ron will have plenty of time to… um, talk now… ;)  
I still need to write a disclaimer for this chapter, but one more piece of trivia first: The hotel was slightly based on the "Fairmont Hotel Vancouver", which was a mere coincidence. I just chose Vancouver, because the trivia of "A Sitch in Time" suggested that Middleton was located on the West Coast (as Norway was 9 hours ahead). That way, it would still make sense to reach Vancouver within a few hours from Drakken's lair, which is just an hour away from Middleton in my story.  
Please be patient – the next chapter could take longer as well. Take care & see you around! :)

DISCLAIMER – The name _Leary_ was taken from a random search for Canadian names.  
The name _Wheeley_ was thought up by myself (very creative, I know).  
The name _Brinestoop_ appears in the computer game _The Curse of Monkey Island_, where the hero Guybrush Threepwood tries to enter a restaurant, but doesn't have a reservation, and he finds the reservation slip of one Mrs. Brinestoop which gets him in. ;) I do not own _The Curse of Monkey Island_ or any of its characters. They belong to LucasArts and were created by Ron Gilbert, Jonathan Ackley and Larry Ahern.  
And the name _Dr. Henry Argyle_ is a combination of the names Terrance _Henry_ Stoot and Phillip Niles _Argyle_, two Canadian characters from the cartoon _South Park_. I do not own _South Park_ or any of its characters. They belong to Comedy Central and were created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.


	7. Bad Awakening

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks a lot to all the people who read and reviewed Chapter Six:** Michael Howard**, **CajunBear73**, **screaming phoenix**, **ZoeyChase08**, **diana** & **Kwebs**! I'm glad you liked it, because it was my personal favorite chapter. :) But the next chapters are gonna be spankin', too! Thanks again to Michael Howard for helping me improve my translation! Well now, folks, enjoy Chapter Seven! ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Seven: Bad Awakening**

The muffled beeping sound of the kimmunicator from inside the nightstand drawer penetrated Kim's subconscious and woke her up from her dreams. Normally, she would have jumped up to accept the call immediately, but that morning, the first thought on Kim's mind was that she did not want to get up for anything in this world now. For the first time, ever since she had made it her business to save the world from maniacal villains, she found the beeping of her kimmunicator a nuisance. She felt indescribably good in this bed… and when she slowly opened her eyes a little at the next beep, she immediately knew why. Right next to her, Ron was lying, still fast asleep, with a very contented grin on his lips. That sight brought a happy smile to Kim's face as well. She could have looked at him like that for hours…

But then, another low beeping tune sounded from her kimmunicator. Kim did not know how many times it had been beeping already, but she realized that she should have reacted to it a long time ago already. Reluctantly, she turned around to her other side underneath the blanket and, lying on her stomach, reached out for the nightstand with her right hand. She missed it twice, before she finally got the drawer open, took out her kimmunicator wristband and activated it with the push of a button. Sleepily, she asked: "What's the sitch, Wade?"

"Kim, I've been beeping you for more than a minute now…" he remarked in a slightly mad tone. "Say, are you still sleeping?"

Kim's eyes had closed again soon after her question, but she opened them half-way again with a start and replied: "No, no, I'm awake…" However, she was not able to stifle a faint yawning at that moment. To be spared from further comments, she then asked right away: "So, is the car ready?"

"Um, yeah…" Wade answered hesitantly. "But those are not all the news. Something big happened tonight…"

A smile appeared on Kim's face at the thought of that night, and she uttered a dreamy: "Uh-huh, yeah…" But less than a second later, she snapped out of it again: "Uh, I mean… yeah, what?" she inquired, without showing her feelings.

Wade gave her a brief surprised look, before he explained: "Well, after I just couldn't get through to the headquarters of Global Justice, I noticed their whole system had crashed, so I went there as fast as I could. I could hardly believe it myself, but someone broke into the HQ, shut down their system from the inside and overpowered the _whole_ team – and that someone was Drakken!"

"What?!" At once, Kim was considerably more awake than before. "How did he do _that_?"

"You can see that in the last recording of a surveillance camera…" Wade said and typed something on his keyboard. Now, a video appeared on the display: Within about two seconds, it showed Drakken grinning eerily into the camera, which was destroyed by a green plasma ray at that – and that ray definitely emerged from Drakken's hand!

In her shock, Kim would have almost dropped the kimmunicator wristband. "Drakken stole _Shego's_ abilities?! No way!" she said in an appalled tone. "Why didn't I think of _that_? Guess it was too obvious…"

"And now, he also got the abilities of the GJ team – of everyone who was present at the HQ at that time, including Dr. Director!" Wade added. "They were all completely helpless when I arrived there…"

Kim sat up, careful to keep herself covered with the blanket, and told Wade: "You can tell me the rest later in the car, Wade. I think I have an idea where Drakken could strike next…" With that, she abruptly disconnected and looked over at the clock on the nightstand first: It was 7:30. How much lead might Drakken already have by now? Then, she turned to look at Ron. Apparently, he still had not woken up and kept smiling in his sleep.

"Ron?" No reaction – except for Ron's grin getting bigger.

"Ron!" She slightly shook his arm, but he still would not wake up.

"Ronnie, wake up!" Even that did not work.

After a brief moment of thinking, Kim concluded there were only two sure-fire methods to wake up Ron. As she did not have any nacos nearby – and she was glad about that –, she just gave him a very long kiss on the cheek. And indeed: As soon as Kim's lips withdrew from his face, Ron turned his head to the side with a low moan and ever so slowly opened his eyes half-way. He beamed at her and sighed in a sleepy, but happy voice: "Huh… KP, I had a wonderful dream…"

Kim smiled and answered carefully: "Uh, well, you know, Ron, I've got some good news for you on that…" And in a whisper, she said: "That wonderful thing was not a dream."

One second later, Ron's eyes went wide in awe, he blinked twice and looked at her in a surprised way. But soon, he was beaming again and uttered a low: "Booya…"

Kim grinned for a moment, but soon she continued with a serious expression: "The bad news is: We've got to get going right now!"

Disillusionment definitely woke Ron up, and his dreamy smile gave way to a disappointed expression. "Aw man…" he moaned.

Kim had jumped out of the bed by now, picked up the hotel bathrobe off the floor and put it on and was now burrowing through her small suitcase for their mission outfits. Ron sat up very slowly, rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and asked: "And what about bed and breakfast?"

At that, Kim threw his clothes over at him, saying: "No time for that!" Then, she ran for the bathroom, carrying her mission outfit under her arm. "And don't forget your beard, Mr. Brinestoop! Remember, we still have to check out," she stopped to remind him, before she disappeared into the bathroom.

While Ron was still trying to compose himself, the door to the bathroom opened a crack again, and he heard Kim shout, slightly startled: "Ah! Get out, Rufus!"

Soon after that, the naked mole rat slowly padded out of the bathroom on two tiny legs. His belly was a little larger than normally, and some peanut crumbs were stuck all around his mouth. When Kim slammed the door again, Rufus started uttering squeaking sounds that almost seemed like a giggle. Ron looked at him questioningly, and Rufus simply gave him a cheeky wink.

-xXOXx-

While Kim had had the presence of mind to put on the black wig again for checking out, Ron had successfully refused to wear the fake beard. His argument, that he could have shaved that morning, did not entirely convince Kim, but she finally accepted it. Fortunately, a different clerk was standing at the reception desk than the evening before. She did cast a few slightly confused glances at the two of them, but asked no further questions. As soon as they had left the hotel, Kim took off the wig again, and she and Ron were on their way to Wheeley's garage on the next street without further ado. On the way, Kim just filled Ron in with what Wade had told her. As soon as she had finished, they had arrived at the repair shop.

A short time later, Kim's car was dashing over the asphalt again on four new tires. Kim drove at a speed that allowed her to make headway fast, but at the same time did not require too much attention and concentration from her, as she immediately contacted Wade through the built-in kimmunicator system. Wade was the first to speak: "Good thing you're mobile again! I hope Mr. Wheeley did use the extra solid tires I had delivered to him this morning."

"Yeah, he did," Kim confirmed. "Thanks again, Wade."

"But he didn't quite make the list of our friendliest helpers ever," Ron spoke up indignantly. "He complained that he normally never opens his shop at 7 a.m. on a Sunday, and he wants to charge the repair to Kim's account!"

"I'm sure it will be paid by Global Justice," Wade soothed them and added hesitantly: "Well, as soon as they have their abilities and the ability transferator back, I think."

"Talking about Global Justice, did Drakken steal anything else from the HQ, apart from the abilities of the whole team?" Kim asked.

"He didn't," Wade answered. "But when I had gotten the system to work again, I discovered that another outpost of GJ was having a system crash. Apparently, Drakken broke in there right after his attack on the HQ. I used the communication system to send a warning to all outposts then."

"Successfully?"

"Apparently not," Wade said to his regret. "I could only watch as they were shut down one by one. Drakken must've attacked just about every outpost of GJ in the United States within the last few hours! In any case, I guess he had a pretty busy night."

At that, Ron looked in Kim's direction and suddenly started laughing embarrassedly, pulling at his shirt collar and clearing his throat exaggeratedly. Kim turned her head a little to the right and gave him a brief surprised look. Then she reacted – unlike Ron expected – with a slightly embarrassed smile as well.

"Uh, guys?" Wade interrupted in a confused tone. "What's up? Did I say something funny?"

Kim had snapped out of it soon and quickly cleared her throat: "Ahem, no, not really. Uh, listen, Wade, I did say I had a suspicion what Drakken could be up to now…"

"Okay…?" Confusion still had not entirely disappeared from Wade's voice. "What is it?"

"The explosion in Drakken's lair, the attacks on Global Justice… It seems like Drakken wants to take out the good guys. _And_ he has Shego's abilities – including her Team Go powers!"

"So, you think he could have it in for Team Go?" Wade deduced.

"That'd be my guess," Kim confirmed. "That way, he could gain more superpowers to abuse them for evil and put a team of superheroes out of action at the same time."

Wade nodded: "Right. Since he already stole Shego's superpowers and her evil ways of thinking, I can imagine that, too. I'll send a warning to the Go Tower and keep an eye on the surroundings."

"And we'll jet to Go City!" Kim answered.

"But please be careful!" Wade warned them. "Drakken has never been more dangerous!" With that, he disconnected.

Kim was just about to push a button to activate the rocket propulsion of the car, but stopped, when Ron asked hesitantly: "Um, you think, Wade …uh …you know, …noticed something?"

She gave him a brief questioning look, while she lay her right hand, that had wanted to push the button before, back on the steering wheel and replied: "Well, I hope he'll call back as soon as he does."

Now, Ron was the one to look confused. A moment later, he shook his head and stuttered: "No, I mean… well, if he, uh… noticed, I mean… uh, like… could tell… before, uh… that we …you know?"

"Oh, that…" Kim said with a knowing grin, then replied in a serious voice: "Well, first: I don't think so. Second: That's so none of his business! And third: What Wade thinks of us should be the least of our worries at the moment…"

Ron's eyes went wide for a moment, and he said, almost shocked: "Please don't tell me you really totally switched to sitch again already?!"

Kim shrugged in an apologetic way and answered: "Okay, then I won't…"

Ron folded his arms, shook his head in disbelief and sighed: "Aw man! And I still don't know where you got that switch! Maybe I just didn't look closely enough…" At that last sentence, he grinned at her, waggling his eyebrows.

"Ron!" Kim said, slightly annoyed. "For the last time! I don't have a switch _anywhere_!" In a considerably calmer voice, she added: "It all happens up here." With that, she shortly pointed at her forehead.

Ron leaned to the left in his seat, looked closely at Kim's forehead and asked in an amazed voice: "Up there? I don't see a switch there, either…"

"Ro-on…!" Her warning tone and look did not exactly match the stifled grin on her lips.

"Okay, okay, I got it!" Ron exclaimed, while he fell back into his seat, quickly waving his arms in front of him in defence. Then, he dropped his shoulders and sighed: "Somehow, I can't help but wish _I_ had a switch like that…"

At that, Kim pushed the button she had meant to use before, and the car literally went off like a rocket.

-xXOXx-

The black-and-green striped jet landed elegantly in front of the huge Go Tower. Seated in the cockpit were none less than Dr. Drakken and Shego. However, Drakken was sitting at the controls and not Shego, who normally was the only one able to fly that jet. At the moment, though, she was only in a position to be tensed up in a seat in the rear part of the cockpit, that was actually intended for prisoners. Drakken, on the other hand, had just made the most successful predatory attack of his life. It did take the whole night – and now the whole morning, too – but with that, Drakken had achieved his first goal: He had traced all outposts of Global Justice in North America – no matter how small they were –, shut them down, and took away the abilities of all those present there. While doing so, he had proceeded in an obscure order across the continent to always have the element of surprise on his side. As a result, the nations that chased and hunted for him the most – the USA and Canada – were now helpless. And until GJ reinforcements from other countries would arrive or even be ordered first, he would already be celebrating another triumph – and be as powerful as never before.

Having ended his attacks on GJ, Drakken quickly went back to his new lair once more in order to take Shego with him. There were two reasons for that: Firstly, she was supposed to see his triumph with her own eyes, naturally. And secondly, he had still needed one or the other piece of information from her, that he had not acquired during the ability transference. "So, the blue one is super strong, the purple one can shrink, and the twins can clone themselves, right?" Drakken asked over his shoulder with a grin.

"Yes, damn it!" Shego spluttered out uncontrollably. "Oh man, why did I just tell you all that?! And what am I supposed to be doing here, anyway?"

Drakken only grinned even broader, while he had a good grip on the ability transferator and held forth: "Then let's pay a visit to your dear brothers…"

-xXOXx-

Inside the Go Tower, only one of the five seats around the big table was taken at that time. On the purple-colored chair, the bored looking Mego was sitting, supporting his head with his one hand, drumming the fingers of his other hand on the table, while overdramatically lamenting to himself: "That's a _real_ great job, alright: _I_ can sit around here and have some 12-year-old _super genius_ give me stupid orders! It's all like: 'Watch out, Mego, there's some wacked blue villain running around with some totally dangerous device!' As if I didn't have _better_ things to do! I bet Hego would be _totally_ thrilled. But naturally, _he_ has more _important_ things to do than taking care of the Go Tower! _Bueno Nacho branch manager seminar week_, duh! Well, at least _I_'m in charge around here for once!"

He had not noticed that during his last sentence, the huge steel door of the Go Tower had opened – only when he heard a more or less threatening voice coming from there: "Wrong! _I_ am in charge around here now!"

Of course, it was Drakken, who was holding up the ability transferator ostentatiously in his one hand, and had pulled Shego close with his other hand. While Drakken marched towards him with a diabolical grin, Mego looked up in surprise and then replied unenthusiastically: "Oh, _super_. _I_ told Hego _a thousand times_ to finally do something about our super evil sister still getting access to the Go Tower with her great green glow! Well, how _nice_ of you, sis, to introduce that crazy guy to _me_ now, the one you left us for years ago."

When Drakken now faced him from the other side of the table together with Shego, she naturally could not suppress her reaction: "Mego, you complete idiot! He has… mmmph…"

At that moment, Drakken held his hand over her mouth and first said in a slightly disappointed manner: "Huh, the one with the lamest of all superpowers…"

"Hey!" Mego exclaimed in a huff, now rising from his seat with his arms akimbo. "Shrinking is actually the _best_ of all superpowers!"

"If you say so, sonny. But now you better tell me where the rest of your bunch is, or else I might have to hurt your little sis!" Drakken threatened, though he would never even dream of doing anything to Shego – apart from the fact that he had stolen her abilities and they seemed like his own to him in the meantime.

Shego, who now had the opportunity to talk again, did seize it – however, because of her acute lack of self-control, not quite in the wisest of ways: "Argh, Dr. D, you're just so incredibly stupid! This is _Me_go, who doesn't care if you do anything to _me_, as long as you don't harm _him_!"

"Who says I _won't_ harm him?" Drakken asked with a grin and pulled the trigger of the ability transferator, which he had aimed at Mego. But before the ray could hit him, Mego had activated his purple Team Go power – and had immediately shrunk down to the size of a mouse. Drakken crouched a little, looking under the table with a dumbfounded expression.

One second later, Mego grew back to his normal size, folded his arms and said with a content smile: "Oh yeah, shrinking is _super_!"

But that was a mistake! For now, Drakken shot up again – simply dropping Shego under the table while doing so – and fired at Mego with the ability transferator for a second time. He had not been prepared for that and was now surrounded by the energy ray. Weakened, Mego sank to the ground, while Drakken took up his abilities in his brain through the energy ray, laughing diabolically. After the transference, Drakken immediately tested his new superpower: Surrounded by the purple Team Go glow, he let himself shrink, easily wandered through under the table and grew back to his normal size as soon as he stood in front of the dazed Mego. Then, Drakken grabbed the now incapable superhero by the collar, pulled him up to face him and said in a studied friendly tone: "And now you'll certainly tell me where I can find your brothers…"

Mego already opened his mouth to answer – and he certainly would have told Drakken what he wanted to know, as he could not help it any longer. But just in time, he was interrupted…

"Don't answer, Mego! I think Drakken has more than enough abilities already!" Kim shouted, now standing in the open entrance door of the Go Tower together with Ron.

"Ah, Kim Possible!" Drakken grinned, while dropping Mego again and turning around. "And her sidekick! Back from Vancouver already? I do hope you enjoyed yourselves! Too bad I couldn't come to the Innovation Party, but I had a sudden change of plan – and I didn't think _you_ would make it to the party!"

Kim and Ron exchanged a brief look. Those were a few snide remarks too much at a time, and to hear Drakken say them was quite unusual. While Ron was still stuck on the sentence "I do hope you enjoyed yourselves" in his thoughts, Kim had gotten a grip on herself again and took a defensive posture to show that she was ready for a fight. Mentally, however, she had not entirely prepared herself for the situation yet. She tried to imagine that she now had to compete against Shego, Mego and about 200 GJ members of unknown composition, united in one person – namely Drakken. And that was not an easy thing to imagine. Nevertheless, she replied with a challenging grin and a corresponding gesture in a self-confident tone: "Well then, bring it on, Drakken! Show us what you're able to do now!"

What Drakken now presented her was indeed a sight to behold: He leapt on the table, doing a somersault from a standing position, propelled himself a few feet into the air in the blink of an eye and shot a green plasma ray at Kim from the highest point. She immediately took Ron's hand and pulled him and herself out of the line of fire just in time. As soon as Drakken had elegantly landed on the floor, he fired with the green plasma once again. Kim and Ron quickly evaded in opposite directions. While Ron had taken cover behind a filing cabinet, Kim leapt for Drakken with several handsprings, steering clear of him. While she did so, he always missed her only by an inch. What Kim did not realize at first: He did not shoot at her with the green plasma any longer – but with the ability transferator!

When Kim landed on her feet a short distance away from Drakken, he shot at her again. Just in time, Kim ducked from the energy ray. And yet another ray came up to her, Kim quickly did a roll and was now at Drakken's feet. From down there, she tried to kick the ability transferator out of his hand, but he pulled the device up and away from her, parrying her kick with ease. Kim propped up on one hand, whirled around to throw Drakken off his feet with hers. But he leapt to the side just at the right moment, Kim kicked at thin air, the momentum whirling her around her axis once more. Her hand slipped off, and that sent her flying a few feet in the direction of the filing cabinet.

"Kim Possible, you think you're all that…" his voice suddenly sounded in typical Drakken manner, and just when Kim came to a stop – she was hit by the ray of the ability transferator! "…, but soon, you'll be nothing!"

"KIM!" Ron shouted, horrified, when he had to watch how the diabolically laughing Drakken stole the abilities of his girlfriend. After the transference, Kim collapsed on the floor dazed, Drakken was still laughing, louder and louder. Panic struck Ron, but he realized he had to do something this instance. First of all, he had to get Kim into safety! He rushed forward out of his cover, lifted Kim up off the floor and carried her, as best as he could, to the big table. Taking cover again beneath it, he carefully put Kim down on the floor and gently stroke her face with his hand.

"Uh… Ron?" Kim moaned quietly, slowly opening her eyes.

"KP…" Ron could not believe how weakened and helpless she appeared. That sight scared him out of his mind. But there was yet another feeling, gradually growing stronger than this sense of fear: A feeling of rage! In fact, a very specific kind of rage that Ron felt whenever someone or something that was dear to him was threatened. That rage was directed at Drakken, grew with every moment and activated a hidden supernatural power in Ron. Slowly, he got up, clenched his fists and growled at the now surprised looking Drakken, his voice getting louder and louder: "No one… takes… _my_ girlfriend's abilities… away from her!"

**End of Chapter Seven**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Hope you liked this chapter! :) Well, looks like Ron's Mystical Monkey Power's kicking in… Will he be able to stop Drakken? Or will Drakken become even more powerful? Just wait and see to find out… ;)  
As for the attacks on GJ… I know, 200 GJ members in North America doesn't sound that much, but I honestly have no idea how many there are, or even how many outposts – it just seems to me like GJ is more of a small, secret organisation. So, maybe I don't make much sense here, but let's just pretend there really aren't more… Or maybe some are out of the country, on another mission perhaps?  
Well now, I'm sorry I always let you wait so long for new chapters, but you know, translating such long chapters takes its time. So, please be patient. Take care & see you around! :)


	8. In a Combined Effort

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks to all the people who read and reviewed Chapter Seven:** CajunBear73**, **screaming phoenix**, **Kwebs**,** Michael Howard**, **xyzisme**, **DiaryofPain** & **Katsumara**! I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter. Sorry it took me so long to update again, but this was a pretty long chapter again, and very hard to translate. Thanks again to Michael Howard for helping me improve my translation! Well now, on to Chapter Eight! ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Eight: In a Combined Effort**

Gradually, the dazed feeling that Kim had experienced decreased, and she tried to sit up a little again. It seemed improbably hard for her to move, though she was definitely conscious. Even though her vision became clear again, in her head there was absolute chaos. She knew exactly what had happened: Drakken had stolen her abilities, like those of Shego and of all the others. She had also clearly seen that Ron had just gotten up, and she had clearly heard what he had shouted at Drakken. But what was about to happen now, was a mystery to her. What was Ron up to? What would Drakken do? What should _she_ do? She just _had_ to be able to do something, but not a thing came to her mind. Thousands of thoughts were racing through her head, an endless number of memories were passing by in her mind's eye, like a carrousel – but she could not stop it! She was no longer able to focus on just one of these many thoughts. A feeling of helplessness struck her – and that scared her.

Ron, on the other hand, forgot all his fears at that moment. They had been completely replaced by his rage against Drakken. His whole body was shaking, not only with rage, but also with energy – an energy that had been given to him by the suddenly activated Mystical Monkey Powers. Driven by the one thought that Drakken had to pay for what he had done to Kim, Ron rushed forward with raised fists and gritted teeth. Drakken was still surprised at the unexpected action of the "buffoon" – the name still escaped him –, but he immediately made use of one of his most recently stolen abilities again. With one hand, he performed a backflip – that Kim could not have done better – and, even before landing back on his feet, fired a green plasma ray at Ron. Quick as a flash, Ron evaded the plasma by moving to one side, but kept running towards Drakken. Several more plasma rays followed, but Ron was unstoppable. He ducked one way, then the other, jumped to the side or backwards – none of Drakken's attacks was able to get at him.

The closer Ron got to Drakken, the more uneasy Kim became. Anxiously, she crawled further back under the table, until she bumped into something – no, into some_one_. Carefully, she turned her head, and the other person turned to look at her as well. Suddenly, Kim and Shego came face to face with each other. Both twitched with a start, turned away from one another and screamed in unison: "Ah! Don't hurt me!"

Soon after that, both risked a look again, and Shego said unenthusiastically: "Gee, I'd _so_ finish you off, if I _could_…"

"Ditto!" Kim retorted.

"_You_'ve got problems!" Mego's voice suddenly sounded behind them in a dramatic tone. "_I_ have lost _my_ abilities! What am _I_ supposed to do without _my_ shrinking power?! That's _disastrous_!"

Meanwhile, Ron kept going. As soon as he had reached Drakken, he grabbed the villain by his wrists and pulled up his arms. He wanted to push him back, make him drop the ability transferator. But Drakken fought back fiercely. He kicked at Ron, wanted to headbutt him, but Ron managed to evade every attack. At the same time, he never lost his tight grip on Drakken's wrists – but all of a sudden, Drakken stopped and started grinning diabolically. Without warning, he did a backflip, taking the surprised Ron with him, kicking him away during the somersault. Ron crashed into a wall and collapsed panting. His back hurt from the impact, his stomach from the kick. Wincing in pain, he lay there.

"Ron!" Kim cried in despair. She was now watching again, while Shego and Mego continued arguing like little kids about which of them had it worse. But that was about all Kim could do – sit back and watch.

Ron's eyes went open. The energy of the Mystical Monkey Powers grew again. But the pain was still stronger. He glanced over to Kim and saw her fear again, her helplessness. At once, the pain decreased. At that, he suddenly became aware of a movement in the corner of his eye and looked straight ahead again. He saw Drakken standing a few feet away from him, slowly turning to face him. With an evil grin, Drakken threw a green plasma ray at him again, but Ron jumped away from the wall just in time, sliding forward across the floor, towards Drakken. When he came to a stop at Drakken's feet, lying on his stomach, the villain looked down at him in a mocking way, saying: "Not all that bad! Maybe the sidekick's abilities do make a nice addition to my collection…"

The very moment Ron saw the ability transferator aimed at him, he reacted as if on reflex: Propped up on his hands, he swung his feet forward with all his might, doing a backflip that way, kicking the device out of Drakken's hands while doing so, catching it as he landed. This action had taken up all the energy that had been given to him by his Mystical Monkey Powers again, and he could only marvel himself at how he had managed to pull off that maneuver. Drakken had landed roughly on the floor, surprise and pain temporarily paralysing him. Ron seized the moment…

"Worry not, KP, I'll get your abilities back for you in no time!" he called back over his shoulder, aiming the ability transferator at Drakken.

"Uh, Ron…" Kim could not think straight, but some memory on her mind told her that Ron was about to make some mistake…

When Drakken just got ready to fire a green plasma ray, the ray of the ability transferator hit him. He twitched as a small share of his laboriously stolen abilities was taken away from him again. While the pump on the device in his hands started flashing, Ron turned around to face Kim. But then, the valve on the rear end of the pump opened, and Ron was surrounded by the energy ray. In his shock, he almost would have dropped the ability transferator, but he would not even have been able to let go of it during the transference.

As soon as the energy ray had disappeared, Ron felt changed. All of a sudden, he was totally concentrated. Before, he only had been led by the rage, by the energy, by the Mystical Monkey Powers, actually had acted blindly and without thinking. But now, there was a clarity in his thoughts he did not know he was capable of. And then, he immediately remembered: "Aw man, right! The abilities are always transferred to the one pulling the trigger. Sorry, KP, I totally forgot!"

Ron immediately ran up to Kim, who was still tensed up underneath the table. While doing so, he quickly looked back over his shoulder – but Drakken was nowhere to be seen! He would have reckoned on Drakken shooting some plasma rays after him or doing something else to stop him from running up to Kim with the ability transferator. Where did Drakken go? Ron looked all around him while running – not a sign of him! Just before he reached Kim, something started glowing in a purple light at his feet. It was Drakken, hardly taller than a mouse – but in the next second, he grew back to his normal size, knocked down Ron with full force, taking away the ability transferator again in the process. Ron lay on the floor, Drakken jumped over the table, laughing diabolically, shouting back at him: "I'd love to stay and watch your miserable attempts to stop me for a little longer – but I have a few things left to do! _You_ should rather help your little girlfriend and explain to her where her abilities have gotten to! Muahahaha!"

With that, he first grabbed Shego with his free hand, took her over his shoulder, then he tossed Mego on his other shoulder and, still laughing evilly, ran back to the jet. Soon after that, he was up and away.

-xXOXx-

Ron grumbled something to himself, while picking himself up off the floor – almost the way Kim would normally do. But there was no time to be annoyed – they had to go after Drakken right away, for Mego would certainly tell him where to find the rest of Team Go without further ado, in his current condition. And once Drakken would get hold of their abilities, things would really get ugly. The thought of a red glowing army of super strong, super capable Drakkens sent shivers down his spine. They had to stop him at all costs! Well – or rather, he… with Kim's abilities.

First of all, Ron carefully helped his girlfriend back to her feet. He was more than relieved that Drakken did not take her with him as well! However, she still seemed pretty weakened to him. While he lay her left arm around his shoulders with his one hand and held onto her right at her waist with his other hand, he asked slightly concerned: "Kim, you're not hurt, are you?"

"Hurt? No – much worse! I've lost my abilities!" Her voice almost cracked, out of sheer desperation. "What am I supposed to do now?!"

"Easy, KP, we'll have that fixed again no prob," Ron tried to soothe her. Then, he took a step forward. "Come on, first, we have to get back to the car."

While Ron kept supporting her to walk, Kim went on wailing uncontrollably: "This just can't be happening! All I could do was just sit there and watch! And then, there was Shego – Okay, she didn't do anything to me, but if she had done anything, then… Oh man, I have no idea what would've happened then! I really don't know! I really can't think straight anymore!" Suddenly, she clung to Ron's shirt and looked at him anxiously, while spluttering out: "Ron, I feel so helpless! Do you have any idea what it feels like to be so helpless?!"

Ron frowned and said hesitantly: "Well, I …kinda. In a way." With that, he thought back to several missions when he had not really known what to do, while Kim had had everything under control. Now, it somehow seemed to be just the other way round – though Kim's current helplessness had to be way more extreme. Gradually, Ron started wondering how he could possibly manage to stay calm just like that. Of course, he worried about Kim, and he also was a little scared – but he could suppress these feelings quite easily. He was just way too concentrated on the mission to let himself be distracted by his feelings. It was somehow …as if he had flipped a switch! That was it! That was exactly Kim's way of thinking …normally.

Now they had reached the car. When Ron stopped to stand in front of it with her, Kim shouted totally shocked: "Oh no, I don't even know how to drive a car anymore! I don't have any idea how to do that anymore!"

Ron held his left hand out in front of her, asking: "KP, I need the car keys. Do you remember where you have them?"

"Car keys… the car keys…" Kim mumbled to herself, then the keys appeared in her mind's eye for a very brief moment. It was some memory showing her where she had put the keys. "I think they're in that thingy…" With that, she pointed down at the side pocket of her mission outfit that was buckled around her right thigh. But other than that, she did not do a thing, except for looking at Ron with that helpless expression again.

That was when Ron realized that even opening that pocket was too complicated for Kim without any abilities. He pulled her a little closer with his right hand, opened the pocket with his left hand, searching for the car keys.

"Ooh, Ron…" Kim let out. Somehow, in her condition, that seemed more like a warm embrace than anything else to her.

Slightly ashamed, Ron looked to the side briefly. Actually, he would have loved to enjoy being close to Kim, but then he finally held the keys in his hand and unlocked the car with the push of a button. He went to the passenger's door, opened it, gently helped Kim sit down inside the car, fastened her seatbelt and closed the door again. Now he sped up as he ran around to the driver's door, opened it, sat down inside, closed the door, fastened his seatbelt and turned on the engine. First of all, he turned the car to drive off the remote small island where the Go Tower was located. Fortunately, the car could go underwater as well.

While Ron was driving back to Go City beneath sea level, he contacted Wade through the built-in kimmunicator system: "Wade, quick, where are Hego and the Wego twins at the moment?"

Wade did not react at all first, except for giving him a confused look. The fact that, all of a sudden, Ron was sitting behind the steering wheel and Kim in the passenger's seat – on top of that, she was wearing a look that he would almost describe as helpless – somehow gave him a strange feeling. After a few seconds, he uttered a suspicion: "Uh, Ron, what's wrong? Does Drakken have Kim's abilities?"

"No, Ron does!" Kim blurted out. It was all too obvious again that things were not looking good for her self-control.

At that, Wade looked even more confused than before. "How did _that_ happen?"

"I'll explain that to you in a few, Wade," Ron replied. "First, I need to know where Hego and the twins are, before Drakken gets them."

"Alright," Wade said and typed something on his keyboard. "When I warned Mego this morning, I also asked him where to find his brothers. Hego is at a Bueno Nacho branch manager seminar in Mexico City. I guess this is gonna be Drakken's next destination. The twins are no longer in Go City, and that was the last info that Mego had. So, Drakken won't find them there."

"So, then we'll go to Mexico City as fast as possible," Ron said. Normally, he certainly would have started raving about Bueno Nacho and Mexican food now. But thanks to Kim's ability to completely focus on the mission, he managed to restrain himself. Now, he was just coming back on land and saw to it that he could drive up on the street.

"I sent the exact whereabouts of Hego to the car's GPS," Wade informed him. Then he inquired: "So now tell me, Ron, how come _you_ have Kim's abilities?"

"Well, see, first, Drakken stole Kim's abilities, and then… well…" Ron began.

When he hesitated, Kim interfered: "Then, Ron somehow got his hands on that thing and now he has my abilities!" Her voice had that desperate tone again, but somehow, she almost sounded a little angry as well.

"I only wanted to steal them back for you, KP…" Ron said apologetically.

"But then you should've given Kim the ability transferator," Wade started. "The abilities are always transferred to the person who…"

"I know that now, Wade," Ron interrupted. "I just forgot about that for a moment! I wasn't thinking! Like I never think about things…"

"But you did do a _lot_ of thinking yesterday…" was Kim's snide remark.

"That was _brooding_, KP," Ron replied. "Brooding, not thinking, there's a diff."

"In any case, _you_… have _my_ abilities! That's just so… wrong!"

"Okay. But better me than Drakken, right?"

"Well, _that_'s true," Wade said, who was slightly confused again by the course of the talk now, though.

"Huh, I don't know…" Kim grumbled, the brainwork currently being too much for her. "I just want my abilities back!"

"You'll get them back, Kim. As soon as Drakken is captured, you'll get them back," Ron tried to soothe her. Then, he added: "And I swear to you, KP, it wasn't on purpose! I didn't mean to take it all from you!"

"Well, but you did! Just wait 'til my Dad finds out!" As soon as Kim had spluttered out that sentence, she added in a confused way: "Wait a second, something just made me say that, but I don't know what. What'll happen, if my Dad finds out, anyways…?"

"Then I am _so_ toast…!" Ron sighed, thinking about what _else_ Kim's Dad might find out. He already saw himself being sent to the black hole in a rocket by Mr. Possible in person…

"I don't get it, Ron," Wade threw in. "It's not like this is the first time something like that happened. Remember the time when you two were brain-switched? I think Kim's Dad got used to situations like that by now…"

"You have no idea, Wade," Ron said, shaking his head, and just for dramatic effect, he repeated: "You have no idea."

"What could be so bad for Kim's Dad to…" Wade pondered – and then, it hit him. "Oh! Uh… Oh my... Uh... You... eww…" he stuttered, his face twitched, his gaze fluttered around and his cheeks started burning. "Uh, …uh, …I'll …call back later." And as soon as he had said that, he had already disconnected.

"Argh, great job, Ron!" Kim grumbled. "What's Wade thinking of us now? And who're you gonna tell next? Drakken?!"

"Well, first: I didn't _tell_ anything, Wade just did some conclusion-jumping. Second: Even _if_ I was gonna tell anyone, then certainly not Drakken! And third: What Wade or anyone thinks of us, should be the least of our worries at the moment…"

The thought that he had just almost sounded like Kim again really occurred to Ron only afterwards. Somehow, he did worry a little about Wade's reaction – and about Kim's. Who could tell if her behavior was entirely due to her current lack of mental abilities like self-control? Or was she really mad at him? But Ron just shook his head, as if to get rid of these thoughts. And when he noticed that they had already left Go City behind by now, he pushed a button on the dashboard to activate the car's rocket propulsion. Normally, Ron only drove Kim's car to park it, while she already chased after the villains. And even in the passenger's seat, the high speed of that car sometimes scared him a little. But now, it was only natural for him to switch on the rocket propulsion and let the car take off into the air. Kim gritted her teeth, looking out of the window anxiously, while they flew towards Mexico…

-xXOXx-

The building was located a little outside of Mexico City. It was six stories tall and had a flat roof, so, basically it was quite insignificant. Originally, it was supposed to become another Mucho Grande Bueno Nacho restaurant, but meanwhile, it was used as an ordinary office building, as well as for holding seminars. As soon as they had been quite some distance away from the city, Ron had brought the car back to the ground and covered the rest of the way on the street. He had only been able to catch a fleeting glimpse of the roof, but if his eyes had not deceived him, Drakken had just been about to land with Shego's jet at that moment. Hopefully they would still get there in time!

After he had parked in front of the building, Ron quickly packed a few things that seemed useful to him, and then he got out of the car. However, he did not go without looking through the passenger's window, which he had left open now, once again first and assure Kim: "I'll be right back, KP – as soon as I've taken the ability transferator away from Drakken."

"You wanna leave me alone here?!" Kim demanded in a desperate tone.

"Kim, it's much too dangerous for you up there… in your condition, I mean. And by the way, I'm not gonna leave you alone…" With that, Ron reached into his pant pocket and pulled Rufus out of it, who seemed to have taken a nap on the way from Go City, as he was now having a good yawn, stretching in Ron's hands for a long time.

When the naked mole rat had finished his yawning, Ron held him up at eye level and spoke to him in a forceful tone: "Rufus, you stay here with Kim. I want you to take good care of her and be there for her. And whatever happens, be alert! You got it, buddy?"

Rufus nodded, then performed a backward somersault in Ron's hands, making squeaking sounds, and ostentatiously took a defensive posture as he landed: "Hi-ya! Okay!"

"Thanks, Rufus! I'm counting on you!" He quickly patted Rufus and then carefully placed him on Kim's shoulder, but she could not suppress a slight twitching at that.

Then, Ron told Kim once more: "I'll be back soon, KP. And then you'll get your abilities back right away!"

After that, he quickly gave her a peck on the cheek, and then he was running towards the building already, holding Kim's "hairdryer" in his hand. While Kim watched him go like that, she said to Rufus with a sigh: "Now I can only sit back again – and not even watch!"

The little rodent patted her shoulder in a soothing way, squeaking: "Aw…"

-xXOXx-

On the roof, Drakken was just about to remove the cover of a ventilation shaft, in order to sneak into the building and surprise the superhero. Before, he had tracked down a crowd of people arranged in a circle on the top floor with the help of an infrared camera that he had found somewhere on board of the jet – probably that funny seminar, but Drakken wanted to creep up through the ventilation shaft first to check that.

Not only had he gotten hold of just one of the Team Go brothers by now – and his lame superpower was never even enough to be able to pass through such a ventilation shaft! No sir, then he also had to discover that the twins were nowhere to be found in the whole of Go City! And if he had not exactly known that Mego would not even have been able to lie to him any more, he certainly would have spent hours getting their true whereabouts out of him. But that was not the only setback Drakken had to experience. He had meant to attack yet another outpost of Global Justice in Mexico City, just to be on the safe side, but he had to discover that it had been completely abandoned. At least he could almost touch Hego's superpowers now – unless there was yet another unforeseen something getting in the way! There was one thing Drakken had realized by now: Even in spite of all the amazing abilities of planning ahead that he now possessed, there was always something there that was able to ruin that seemingly perfect planning…

Or some_one_, in that case… For just as Drakken had unscrewed the last of the screws that had fixed the grating in front of the ventilation shaft, he perceived a well-known voice behind him: "Not so fast, Drakken!"

Drakken turned around and maliciously shouted over to the other side of the roof: "Aha, looks like Kim Possible's abilities have followed me…"

Ron ignored that comment, clenched his fists and challenged the villain: "Come on, Drakken, let's get this over with! Man against man!"

At that, Drakken replied in a laugh: "Man? You?! Oh please…! Don't make me laugh! More like 'man against buffoon'!"

There was a virtually endless number of possible answers that came to Ron's mind. Finally, he just shrugged and said with a grin: "Okay, I would've said the same thing – but I didn't mean to insult you…"

Drakken growled with anger and fired a green plasma ray. With a skillful handspring, Ron evaded it in time and landed further up in a defensive posture. His gaze was fixed upon Drakken who was just reaching for the ability transferator on his belt. Now it was on, now was the time for fullest concentration! He would have to be able to anticipate Drakken's every move, in order to protect Kim's abilities from him. Ron had to come up close enough to the villain in order to take the device away from him, but at the same time, he had to stay out of range of the energy ray. It was not an easy task lying ahead of him. Ron concentrated like never before in his life, or so it seemed to him. He gathered together all the courage and all the powers that were inside him – and Kim. Slowly, he went forward step by step, his arms always on the defensive, his gaze fixed upon Drakken, his head in the game.

Drakken did not let Ron out of his sight, either, waiting for the right moment. At some point, the "buffoon's" luck would certainly run out, and he would make a fatal mistake… On the other hand, he had really underestimated him before already – and now, on top of that, he also had Kim Possible's abilities, that admittedly really were "all that". No, he had to take action right now, before the "buffoon" would take the offensive! The next time Ron stopped to stand, Drakken shot at him with the ability transferator – only to watch him evade it, leaping to the side with one jump. The next energy ray also missed – a backflip, followed by an impressive somersault carried Ron out of the line of fire in a high arc twice. And at the same time, it got him further up, closer to Drakken! He now missed for the third time, when Ron jumped into the air like a cheerleader, bursting with energy. As soon as his feet touched the ground again, he propelled himself into the air once more, doing another somersault in Drakken's direction. Drakken did not know how he did that – he was moving way too fast for him, always jumped out of the ray's range all the time, way too high and way too far! Not even Kim Possible was able to evade like that – why _him_?

Ron knew it now – it was all just a matter of concentration! Never before had he managed to call for his Mystical Monkey Powers deliberately. All the time, they had only come and gone as they pleased, controlling his actions for a few moments – but now _he_ was in control! It felt exactly like back then, when he had acquired these supernatural powers for the first time. But still, it was different – the power was much stronger than it was back then! Full of energy, he raced the remaining distance towards Drakken, blocking the arm that aimed at him again with a powerful blow, so that the energy ray was fired into the air. Taken aback, Drakken backed away, holding his right arm, that just managed to keep its grip on the ability transferator, with a pained expression. But he put on a diabolical grin, as an attempt to unnerve Ron with a threat: "You don't really believe _you_ can defeat me _by yourself_, do you?!"

Ron was just about to answer, when a loud noise and a heavy draft caused Drakken and him to stop. Both held their arms up in front of their faces protectively, as they risked a look upwards. A silver-gray hover-jet had appeared up in the sky, and it was just about to come in to elegantly land on top of the roof in front of them.

"Looks like I'm not _all by myself_ after all…" Ron shouted over the noise in a self-confident tone, though he had no idea what would be in store for him now, either…

**End of Chapter Eight**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – I hope you liked this chapter. Kim's abilities and Ron's Mystical Monkey Powers – interesting combination, isn't it? ;) And it seems like there's one thing Drakken never took into account: The Ron Factor!  
Now, one more thing before I let you wait for the next chapter again: I was wondering if I should change the story's genre… As you can see, I chose "General/Romance" when I first published it. I thought it fits, because I meant this story to be like an ordinary KP episode (hence genre #1: General), with a few more romantic aspects than in the show (hence genre #2: Romance). But now, it occurred to me that this might scare away other readers who might think there's no action in this story… I mean, it should be clear that there's some action in it, as the summary says Kim & Ron have to fight Drakken. But should I change the genre to "Romance/Adventure"? Unfortunately, the former genre "Action/Adventure" is just called "Adventure" now (or at least it was the last time I checked), so I don't know if that fits, either. Or does "General/Romance" still work? What do you think? I'd really appreciate your opinion on that.  
Okay, the next chapter could take a while again, so please be patient, like always. Take care & see you around! :)


	9. A Memorable Ending

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks to the people who read and reviewed Chapter Eight:** Michael Howard**, **xyzisme**, **screaming phoenix** & **Kwebs**! I hope the other reviewers of my previous chapters are doing fine and catch up with my story soon. Now, prepare to read the finale (you heard me!) of "Perfect Planning"… A special thanks again to my proof-reader Michael Howard for helping me improve my translation! Well now, enjoy Chapter Nine! ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Chapter Nine: A Memor-able Ending**

Slowly, the silver-gray hover-jet touched down on one side of the flat roof. Soon, it was standing exactly parallel to the black-and-green striped aircraft on the opposite side, from which Shego and Mego were watching the spectacle in awe. Standing on the roof between the two planes were Dr. Drakken and Ron, both too surprised to budge, both fixing a fascinated gaze upon the hover-jet. Every now and then, Ron briefly looked at Drakken out of the corner of his eyes to make sure he did not try to use the distraction for a new attack with the ability transferator. But Drakken's surprise and indignation about his plans seemingly being foiled by yet another unforeseen event were a lot stronger than his aggressiveness at the moment. And whoever would get out of that jet might actually be just as good of a target for the ray of the ability transferator…

As soon as the landing had taken place, a huge automatic door on the side of the jet that was facing Drakken and Ron slowly opened. Judging by the size of the jet, it could have transported a maximum of about thirty people. At the moment, however, only a single figure came into view behind the door – the sight of which prompted Ron to shout in a surprised, if not shocked manner: "WADE?!"

It was indeed Wade, in person, who was now facing them, wearing his mission outfit and a confident expression. While Ron just gaped, Drakken started grinning and laughing evilly again: "Ha, Kim Possible's computer kid! Now, isn't that wonderful! I do believe my collection could still use some abilities of that kind!"

That was when Drakken aimed the ability transferator at Wade, but the very moment he pulled the trigger, Wade quickly pressed a button on his utility belt – and immediately, he was surrounded by a blue glowing sphere that the energy ray could not get through! Drakken's jaw dropped in shock, and Ron could hardly believe his own eyes, either. Relieved on the one hand, confused on the other hand, he ran up to Wade, while Drakken was loudly cursing with anger, and stammered: "Wade, what…? I mean, how…? Say, you're not wearing Kim's battle suit, are you?! She won't like that at all! I mean, you were the one who made it, I give you that, …but I still remember how Kim reacted when…"

"No, Ron," Wade interrupted him with a grin. "_I_ wouldn't dream of doing that! I just installed the same protective shield function into my utility belt."

"Aha…! Farsighted like always, Wade! But how did you even get here?"

"Well, of course I sent a warning to the GJ outpost in Mexico City right away. And when I explained to them what Drakken did to Dr. Director and the others, they were glad to make a _little_ detour via Middleton and give us a ride."

"Ah, I see…" Ron said, but then he hesitated: "Uh, hang on a second… '_us_'? Who do you mean by '_us_'?!"

Without a word, Wade stepped aside to get out of the way, and in the next moment, as if by order, about twenty – if not more – red glowing copies of one and the same person stormed out of the jet in a matter of seconds – those were the Wegos! In a V formation, they got into line in front of Ron and Wade.

"Wade, are you crazy?!" Ron shouted in horror. "You've led them straight to Drakken!"

Drakken grinned diabolically, when he saw the crowd of Wegos in front of him and immediately aimed at the first of them with the ability transferator. He fired, the energy ray fully hit the superhero – but nothing happened! Wego did not even twitch when he had been hit, and the ray disappeared without making the pump flash. Drakken let out a cry of desperation, while Ron could only gape.

Wade grinned once again and deactivated the blue protective shield that surrounded him in order to explain to the baffled Ron: "It's not that simple for Drakken to steal the abilities of the Wego twins. Their abilities, especially their superpowers, are so strongly connected to one another – they virtually complete each other, so it isn't enough to zap just one of them. That way, the ability transferator doesn't even register them. The transference would only work if the ray hit both of the original twins – at the same time!"

"But… how did you know that?"

"I just ran a few tests on the computer, while the Wego twins and I were waiting for the jet to arrive."

Drakken did not hear any of this. He was busy zapping one Wego after the other with the ability transferator, blinded by his rage, but the result was always the same – nothing! Now the red glowing clones all rushed forward at the same time, forming a threatening circle around the villain. Drakken nervously looked around him a few times, then took the offensive, furiously firing green plasma rays all about him. The clones jumped up or to the side, they all managed to evade every single attack. Some of them ran up to Drakken, trying to attack him. But he warded them off with some well-aimed blows and kicks or let himself shrink with the purple glow, so that the Wegos missed him. A few times, one of them almost got his hands on the ability transferator – missing by less than an inch. The assault of the Wego clones did not stop, but neither did Drakken's defense.

Ron and Wade were sceptically watching. After the army of Wegos had been knocked down a few times already, Wade said: "If things go on like this, they won't be able to stop him for much longer. They need help…"

Wade wanted to signal the remaining crew of the jet – twenty-five GJ men from Mexico City – to come out, but Ron held him back: "Hang on, Wade… I'm not done with him yet…!"

Wade's questioning look was only answered by Ron's determined expression and a brief nod. Ron now looked back at the fighting scene, fixing his look upon Drakken and taking one deep breath. Fully concentrated, he went searching inside him, recalled the exact memory of how he had just used his Mystical Monkey Powers before – how they had come to him, when he had called for them. _He_ was in control! Yes, he _could_ do it – he _would_ make it again! As soon as he could feel the energy again, he took a little run, bent his knees – and now, Wade was the one to gape!

With an almost monkey-like scream, Ron did a standing jump several feet into the air across the roof, rushed downwards, hands first – and struck Drakken's head! He pushed the villain down with all his might during the fall, propelling himself into the air again at the same time to land back on his feet behind Drakken with a small somersault, in the middle of the amazed Wegos. Ron whirled around, Drakken lay flat on his face on the ground, the ability transferator still in his hand. Quickly, Drakken turned on his back, fired an energy ray at Ron, but he evaded it just as fast, leaping high into the air again from a crouching position. Doing a somersault, he came rushing down again, feet first. As if on reflex, Drakken yanked his arms upwards, trying to aim with the ability transferator – but gasped, when Ron came crashing down on him like a flash!

"Oof!!" Too fast came the landing – Drakken winced in pain when Ron's feet hit his stomach with full force. For a moment, everything went black before Drakken's eyes, he only felt the weight of his attacker, even though he had jumped off of him again right away. Drakken almost thought he had lost consciousness – but when he opened his eyes again with a start, contorted with pain, and looked up, he noticed that he had lost something else…

"No!!" Drakken screamed with horror, when he saw the ability transferator flying though the air. He sat up, trying to jump up and run after it, but the pain made him wince again.

"Got it!" one of the Wegos shouted behind him, having caught the device. Still lying on the ground, convulsed with pain, Drakken did the only thing he was able to do from that position – he fired a green plasma ray. The impact of the ray knocked Wego over, and once again, the ability transferator went flying through the air. Drakken followed it with his horrified gaze, saw the red glowing clones running up from the other side to catch it. He swung his arm around, firing another plasma ray while doing so, throwing all the Wegos off their feet in one go. The ability transferator came closer and closer to the ground…

Ron took action fast. With an energetic jump ahead, he just managed to catch the device – even though that made him land roughly on his stomach. He briefly shook his slightly dazed head, then picked himself up off the ground and sighed with relief: "Alright! And now, back to Kim!" But as soon as he moved, he heard a growl and an infuriated scream.

"Ron, look out!" Wade warned him.

Ron looked up, saw Drakken furiously running up to him, firing a plasma ray – just in time, Ron managed to take cover by jumping to the side. But now Drakken had almost reached him, stood in front of him with green glowing hands, growling: "Give that back to me right now, you buffoon!"

Almost blinded by his rage, he headed for Ron, but did not get far – for all of a sudden, he could not see a thing! Confused and enraged, Drakken lashed out in all directions with glowing hands, thrashed about with his feet, trying to move. What was going on? There was some kind of a resistance – something that blocked his view, that stopped him …and even squeezed his nose. And no matter where he tried to turn his head, the barrier stayed where it was – on his face!

"Now you already have so many abilities and you still don't get it!" he heard a furious voice in front of him. "My name is _Ron_! Ron Stoppable!"

Ron's hand was the barrier! With incredible strength, he stood there, pushing Drakken away from him, stopping him from getting ahead. In his other hand, he was holding the ability transferator out of the villain's range, who now realized what was going on here. Drakken jumped back, evading Ron's grip that way and immediately fired a green plasma ray – that hit Ron with full force and sent him flying several feet behind. "_Stoppable_ indeed…" Drakken mocked him.

With a pained expression, Ron landed on the hard ground, remained flat on his back motionlessly. But already a few moments after the rough landing, he opened his eyes with a start, looking down at his left hand – fortunately, he had not lost the ability transferator! He lifted his dazed head and saw Drakken running up to him. Soon, he would attack him and take the ability transferator away from him again. He could not let that happen! Ron gritted his teeth, trying to ignore the pain and reactivate his Mystical Monkey Powers. Only very slowly did the energy return to him – _too_ slowly! It would not be enough…

Suddenly, Drakken abruptly stopped – no, he was pulled back! When Ron looked closer, he noticed four red glowing Wego clones who held onto Drakken's arms. That was his chance! He sat up, trying to pick himself up off the ground – but then he winced in pain, his back still hurt too much. Perhaps he should try once more to call for his Mystical Monkey Powers that always gave him so much energy to make the pain fade away. He focussed his mind… Drakken had already shook off one of the Wegos… and another one… soon he was freed, ran up to him again… That was when Ron noticed Wade was suddenly standing much closer to them than before.

"Wade!" he shouted to him. And then, he threw the ability transferator in Wade's direction, right over Drakken who stopped and stared as if on reflex. It was a perfect throw, Wade caught the ability transferator with ease. Drakken whirled around, shot a green plasma ray – only to watch how it was intercepted by Wade's blue glowing protective shield.

"ARGHHH!!" Drakken was on the verge of despair once again, which gave Ron enough time to fully reactivate his energies. He drew up his legs, pushed himself forward off the ground with all his might, so that his feet hit Drakken's back with full force. That threw the villain off balance, while Ron landed safely on his feet behind him. In the meantime, some of the Wego clones had gotten up again and made sure Drakken stayed on the ground. Now Ron was running across the roof to the place where he had left Kim's "hairdryer" behind. Wade was waiting there, still holding the ability transferator in his hand, both of them surrounded by the blue protection bubble projected from his utility belt. When Ron reached him, Wade deactivated the protective shield and gave him the ability transferator.

"Think you guys got him under control for now?" Ron asked him, looking back at Drakken and the Wegos once more.

"Don't worry about that," Wade said and pointed at the ability transferator in Ron's hand. "Better go to Kim first, before Drakken takes that away from you again."

-xXOXx-

Down in the car, Kim was still sitting in the passenger's seat trembling. The whole time, she had been looking out of the opened window, but she had hardly been able to make out what was happening up on the roof – and if she had made out anything, she was not able to make any sense of it. Every now and then, she had heard something, but never understood what exactly it was. In any case, she was already exasperated. "What's happening up there, Rufus?" she asked the little rodent that was sitting in front of her on the dashboard and looking all around, her voice trembling heavily. "Where's Ron gotten to? What's taking him so long? I can't take it any longer!"

Rufus gave her a sympathetic look, uttered a helpless squeaking sound and shrugged. Gradually, he was driven to despair as well. For as long as they had been waiting here, Kim had certainly asked him all of this a thousand times already and wailed about things all the time. He really had no idea how to comfort her any longer. After all, she did not even seem to understand his squeaking! He could only hope that Ron would return very soon and put everything right again.

And then, finally, he saw something – it was Ron, who was coming down the wall of the building that very moment. Squeaking and jumping for joy, Rufus pointed out of the window. Kim could have sworn she had heard her name among the sounds of the naked mole rat and gave him a confused stare. But then, she clearly perceived from somewhere else: "KP!" And when she looked out of the window, Ron was just running up to the car.

"Ron!" Kim shouted, still in a more desperate than relieved tone, though.

"KP, I got it!" Ron beamed, holding up the ability transferator, when he had reached the car. Then he opened the passenger's door, took off Kim's seatbelt first and carefully turned her around to the opened door. "Everything's gonna be fine now!"

While he slowly put the ability transferator into her hand, a thought struck Ron all of a sudden: Would he ever be able to call for his Mystical Monkey Powers again, when he needed them? Without Kim's abilities that had made it possible for him to fully concentrate, to fade out his fears, to believe in himself and his own abilities…? But as quickly as the thought had occurred to him, he already rejected it again and let Kim have the ability transferator. He stood in front of her, ostentatiously spread out his arms and said: "Alright, KP. Fire!"

Kim just looked at him and asked: "And what am I supposed to do now?!"

Ron gave her a confused look first, then he briefly laughed in an embarrassed way and tried hard to make clear to her what she had to do: "Uh, yeah, first of all, you aim it at me, like this…" He took her hands in his and slowly pulled them up.

"…and then you pull that trigger." With that, he carefully lay the index finger of her one hand on the trigger of the device.

"Um, like this?" Without warning, Kim pulled the trigger, the energy ray hit Ron at close range and therefore so heavily that he was thrown off his feet. Kim was startled for a moment, but then she watched in awe as the ray disappeared again, made the pump flash and another ray emerged from the rear end and surrounded her. And that was when she felt her abilities come back to her.

"Aw man, brain pain!" Ron had sat up and put his hand to his slightly dazed head. But then he looked up and went back to his feet with one jump. "KP!"

"Ron!" Kim shouted with relief, jumped up from the passenger's seat and flung her arms around her boyfriend. Ron returned and enjoyed the tight hug.

And Rufus was glad as well. "Booya!" the little rodent squeaked, hopped out of the car onto Ron's shoulder and cuddled up to his face – his way of "hugging" him, so to say.

After a few seconds, Kim broke the hug and asked: "And what about Drakken? Is he still up there?"

Ron nodded and replied: "Wade and the boys are taking care of him right now."

"Wade is here?!" Kim asked in surprise. "And I thought he…"

When Kim did not continue, Ron asked: "You thought he'd let us down?"

"Huh, I guess really I did… Weird. But I wasn't even _able_ to think straight before, was I…?" Then she shrugged and said: "Never mind – now I wanna see what's going on up there…"

They kept the ability transferator safely in the locked up car for now, then they both ran back to the building, where Kim's "hairdryer" was hanging from the rope that was fixed by a grappling hook up on the roof. Once there, Kim grabbed the "hairdryer" with her right hand, drew Ron close with her other hand to hold onto him. With a smile, Ron held onto her with his right arm and also lay his left hand on the "hairdryer", touching Kim's hand. Kim returned the smile and let herself and Ron be pulled up with the push of a button.

-xXOXx-

Up on the roof, they had already been expected. "Wade!" Kim smiled when she saw him.

"Kim!" He briefly looked the other way, slightly embarrassed. "Good to see you're okay again…"

"Say, boys, what in the world did I miss here?!" Kim then asked, amazed by the sight that met her eyes: Drakken was lying on the ground, tied up from his shoulders almost down to his knees with a particularly thick and solid rope that was constructed to prevent him from using the Team Go powers. Behind him, the Wego twins and the GJ men were standing. Without the threat of the ability transferator, it obviously had not been all that hard for them to overpower Drakken.

When Kim, Ron and Wade approached Drakken, he was just brought to his feet by two GJ soldiers in order to be taken into custody. The villain looked quite strained, but when he caught sight of Kim, he held forth: "Kim Possible, you think you're all that – but this time, it wasn't _you_ who beat me!"

"True, I'll give you that…" Kim said, then pulled back her arm with a clenched fist and threatened him with a grin: "But I could make up for that, if you want…!"

At that, Drakken twitched in panic, almost falling over that way. Even though Kim did not carry out her threat, the villain still kept his frightened look for a while, as he was taken away into the hover-jet. Team Possible now turned to face each other again, and Wade remarked: "All that's left to do now, is return all the other abilities to their original owners."

"That could take a while…" Ron said. "I sure hope we'll get to hit Bueno Nacho on our way!"

"Of course, Ron," Kim assured him and then pondered: "So, the last person whose abilities Drakken has stolen – before he stole mine, that is –, was Mego, …right? He didn't get hold of anyone up here, did he…?"

"No, he didn't," Wade answered and added with a smile: "…thanks to Ron."

"Nah…" Ron gave a dismissive gesture. "It's not like I did it on my own… kinda. I mean… well…"

"I saw you a few times!" Kim interrupted him, almost with a hint of excitement in her voice. "How you were jumping through the air – but I had no idea what was happening! You've got to tell me everything…"

-xXOXx-

It had taken them until late in the night to fly to all the outposts of Global Justice that Drakken had attacked – in reverse order of his attacks – and return the right abilities to every single member of the respective outpost on the basis of the ability transferator's registry. Now they had made it to their last stop, the headquarters. While Wade made sure to explain to each of the members about the return of their abilities, Kim and Ron were standing off to one side. Only now had Ron gotten to tell her the details of his fight against Drakken to the very end. Kim could only gape and was tongue-tied at first. Actually, she found all the things Ron had told her almost unbelievable, but Wade had repeatedly confirmed some of his earlier stories. Finally, she did not know what else to say than: "I wish I had been there… But I know I couldn't."

A moment of silence passed, in which they both watched what was happening behind them again. Yet another one of the members was just zapping Drakken with the ability transferator, which caused Ron to comment in an amused way: "He's always been the _target_ of ridicule, but _this_ must be new to him…"

Suddenly, they heard a familiar voice behind them: "Miss Possible…"

They both turned around again, and Kim smiled: "Dr. Director!" Slightly ashamed, she said right away: "We're sorry you and your men had been attacked…"

Dr. Betty Director, who had her abilities back by now, gave her a nod and continued in a friendly voice: "Don't think about it. Thank you for catching Dr. Drakken and getting back the prototype."

"No big! But don't save all your thanks for me…" With that, Kim put her arm around Ron and added with a smile: "If it hadn't been for Ron, Drakken would've caused a lot more damage."

Ron gave Kim a grateful smile and then was surprised to see Dr. Director hold out her hand towards him and to hear her say in a sincere way: "Many thanks to you as well, Mr. Stoppable."

While Ron hesitantly shook her hand, he laughed embarrassedly: "Uh, he, he, you're welcome…"

After a few moments, Dr. Director explained: "As soon as all ability transferences had been reversed, we will immediately destroy the prototype to make sure it will never fall into the wrong hands again. We also might temporarily or completely stop this project and devote ourselves to other research programs again. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

When Dr. Director left the room, Ron also put his arm around Kim and said: "You know, KP, I think I never could've done all that without your abilities. I was able to concentrate like never before… somehow, that was like a whole new experience. Really, I've never experienced anything like that before – and I mean, I've been through a lot already! I've even been in your body once, but…"

"Ahem, Ron…!" Kim gave a little cough and quickly looked all around her.

"Whoops…" Ron grinned with embarrassment and stuttered: "Uh, what I… he, he… I meant to say… The time we were brain-switched… You know, you were in my body, I was in yours… But still, I wasn't able to do anything! Well… and when I had your abilities, …I kinda felt like, … you know …like …like I could…"

"…do anything?" Kim finished the sentence for him.

"Um… yeah… exactly," Ron replied hesitantly and then added in an excited voice: "I could even control my Mystical Monkey Powers! There was nothing to it, actually…" He lowered his voice a little again and sighed: "I hope I'll still remember how I did that later, because… Who knows? Maybe that really could be useful again sometime…?"

"Uh-huh… Who knows…?" After a few seconds of silence, Kim gently touched his face with her other hand and whispered: "You were amazing…"

Ron looked at her in a surprised way and asked: "I thought you didn't even see how I…?"

When Kim smirked at him and cocked one eyebrow, it finally hit him. With a goofy grin, he drew her closer and said in a low voice: "Booya…"

They looked deep into each other's eyes. And just when they were about to forget everything around them and kiss, suddenly someone cleared his throat behind them: "Ahem… excuse me… Miss Possible?"

Kim refrained a little from Ron again and turned around questioningly: "Uh… yes?"

The GJ guard who had addressed her pointed at the ability transferator he was holding in his other hand in a slightly embarrassed way and asked: "Well, uh, actually, I was the first one here whose abilities were stolen by that Drakken fellow. Dr. Director explained that all entries would be deleted, after the abilities had been transferred back to their owners, but the device still indicates some kind of a transference…"

"Well, then you just have to find out who's still missing their abilities…" Kim replied.

The man looked at the display on the ability transferator once again, took a brief look around and then went off in one direction. Kim turned back to Ron and exchanged a questioning look with him, when Ron said dryly: "And I'm sure he couldn't have figured that out on his own…"

"Huh…" Kim pondered. "I just remembered who's been without any abilities for a long time already…"

Soon after that, an infuriated voice was heard: "DRAKKEN!!"

Followed by a panic scream: "AHHH!! No, please don't! Shego, I'm so sorry!"

And then, the still tied up Drakken came running past them, as fast as his current position allowed him to. And behind him, the furious Shego followed, causing him to jump with a green plasma ray over and over again.

"HELP!! Please, lock me up! Just take me away from her!!" Drakken cried out fearfully, while Kim and Ron exchanged amused smiles at the sight.

**End of Chapter Nine**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Yeah, that was the memor_able_ (pun intended) ending of "Perfect Planning" – I hope you enjoyed it! :) I also hope you got the little reference to "Graduation" in the last paragraph and you liked my take on Ron's Mystical Monkey Powers. As awesome as his powers were in "Graduation", I was always wondering how Ron was possibly able to control them like that all of a sudden! I was always under the impression that they just came to him as they pleased (usually when someone or something he held dear was threatened), but it seemed more like the powers controlled _him_, not the other way round. In my story, I kinda wanted him to "learn" how to control them, but of course, the powers couldn't already work the way they did in "Graduation". They're more like a "booster" for Kim's abilities here.  
So, why am I writing "End of Chapter Nine" again and not "The End", if my story's over already, you might ask? Because there's a little Epilogue still to come! ;) As this story is set within Season Four, and every episode of Season Four had a little extra scene in the end, when the credits were running, I thought I might add such a scene to this story as well. It will be up pretty soon! Until then, take care & see you around! :)


	10. Epilogue: The Monday After

AUTHOR'S NOTE – Thanks again to the people who read and reviewed Chapter Nine! This time, I'll save all my special thanks for afterwards, so you can enjoy the Epilogue right away! ;)

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

**Epilogue: The Monday After**

After a mission that only came to an end late on a Sunday night, Monday morning naturally arrived much faster than usually. But for some reason, that Monday morning, Ron did not mind getting up early as much as he usually did. He could hardly wait to get out of the house. Not that he was looking forward to school – he would rather swear off Bueno Nacho than use the words "look forward" and "school" in one and the same sentence! Like every morning before school, he was on his way to the Possibles' house to go to school together with Kim in her car. And even though – or maybe even _because_ – they had last seen each other only the night before, when they had returned from their mission, Ron could not wait to see his girlfriend again.

A few minutes earlier than usually, he had arrived at the Possibles' house and rang the doorbell. A few moments later, the door was opened, but not by Kim. "Oh, good morning, Ron," Kim's mother greeted him with a smile.

"'Mornin', Mrs. Dr. P.," Ron replied. "Uh, is Kim ready?"

"Huh, Kimmie just finished her breakfast and went upstairs one more time. Seems like you're a little early today," Mrs. Possible said and then made an inviting gesture. "I'm sure she'll be ready any minute. Why don't you come in for a few?"

"Uh, yeah, thanks." With a brief slightly embarrassed grin, Ron entered the house and waited for Mrs. Possible to close the door and motion him to go into the kitchen. Ron stopped to stand in the doorway to the kitchen once more, hesitating as he saw Kim's father sitting at the end of the table, who was just taking a sip from his cup of coffee while holding a pen in his other hand, focussing his gaze on a blueprint that was lying in front of him on the table.

"Do sit down, Ron," Mrs. Possible said in a friendly voice, while she went past him into the kitchen to one of the cupboards.

Now, Mr. Possible looked up from his work in a slightly surprised way and greeted Ron with a quite expressionless: "Good morning, Ronald."

"Uh, 'mornin', Mr. Dr. P.," Ron answered a little hesitantly and carefully moved towards the nearest chair to sit down.

"Would you like a little snack, Ron?" Mrs. Possible asked over her shoulder, while she put some plates in the cupboard above her. "Or maybe some orange juice?"

"Oh, uh, no… thanks, Mrs. Dr. P. I… uh… had, uh …my breakfast, you know…" Ron stuttered while he put down his backpack on the floor and sat down at the table. Actually, he was just trying to cast a quick glance at the blueprint, but Kim's father would not stop looking at him with this inscrutable expression. It was almost like a test, who would look away first…

Finally, when Ron gradually started getting nervous, Mr. Possible put away the blueprint and the pen, folded his hands in front of him on the table and said: "Well, Ronald… Looks like the two of you experienced a lot this weekend…"

Ron felt beads of sweat on his forehead, and his facial muscles started twitching slightly. "Uh, …he, he, guess so…" he chuckled in an embarrassed tone, trying to cover up his nervousness, while his gaze fluttered around.

"Well… I must say, I was pretty worried when the two of you were away overnight and I hadn't heard from my Kimmie cub at all…" While saying that, he leaned a bit forward and pierced Ron with his gaze. Ron gulped and clung to the bottom of his chair in a reflex action. But then, Kim's father leaned back, folded his arms behind his head and continued in a considerably less threatening tone: "But there you can see just how the two of you overexert yourselves for the fight against evil. Chasing that Drakken across the continent all night long… Now, that really is commitment!"

Ron looked totally confused for a moment, then a heavy load was taken off his mind, and he said hesitantly: "Uh, …yeah, right! What a mission…!"

Mr. Possible was silent for few more seconds, but in the next moment he was sitting upright again and spoke wagging his finger at Ron: "But – about last Friday night…"

"More coffee, hun?" his wife interrupted him, now suddenly standing beside him at the table with a pot of coffee.

While Mr. Possible now had to consider whether he should finish his sentence or answer his wife's question first, and Ron had twitched nervously again, steps could be heard, nimbly running down the stairs and heading for the kitchen. And soon, Ron already felt how he was hugged from behind and heard Kim's light-hearted voice close to his ear: "'Mornin', Ron. Why, you're already here… Ready to go?"

Pleasantly surprised, Ron turned his head to look at her and replied: "Hey, KP. Sure, uh …let's go."

Kim let go of him, and while Ron stood up and picked up his backpack again, Kim said to her parents: "Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!" And gave each of them a kiss on their cheek. Then, she took Ron's hand and while she almost dragged him out of the kitchen, Ron called over his shoulder: "See you, Mr. and Mrs. Dr. P.!"

"Bye, Kimmie! See you, Ron! Have fun at school!" Mrs. Possible called after the two of them happily, while her husband stared into space in a slightly bewildered way, still wagging his finger.

As soon as they had left the house, Kim gave her boyfriend a long overdue welcome kiss on the cheek. While they were marching towards Kim's car, Ron put his arm around her and said with a grin: "Chasing Drakken all night long…? KP…! I never thought you could be so… cunning…"

"Well… I wonder where I got _that_ from…" Kim replied with a smile and put her arm around him as well.

Ron's smile disappeared, and he asked hesitantly: "And… you didn't have any problem with …lying to your parents?"

"Well… actually, I did…" At that moment, they came to a stop in front of the car, and Kim gently lay her other hand on Ron's chest, while she continued in a whisper: "But I'd have a much bigger problem with my boyfriend being put into a rocket to a black hole…"

With a smile, Ron drew her a little closer.

**THE END**

**XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX**

AUTHOR'S NOTE – And thus concludes our tale… I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! I even enjoyed translating it, though that sure gave me fits at times…!  
As you might have noticed, I did change the story's genre from "General/Romance" to "Romance/Adventure" now, just because I don't want people to think there's _nothing_ but Romance in it (though it's an essential part of it).

But now, I want to thank you, my faithful readers & reviewers for all the comments you left – for your encouraging words of praise, as well as your constructive criticism. Thank you so much: **CajunBear73**, **Kwebs**, **Flame Swordsman**, **screaming phoenix**, **Michael Howard**, **Donteatacowman**, **MrDrP**, **CaptProd**, **DrakkenFanboy**, **xyzisme**, **The defenastrator**, **bthecatslayer**, **Katsumara**, **ZoeyChase08**, **diana**, **DiaryofPain**, **freivolk** (and all my other readers from the German KP forums) and everyone who just read the story without reviewing, as well as the people who might read it sometime in the future.

And another _very_ special thanks to my wonderful proof-reader **Michael Howard**! Thank you big time for helping me improve my translation – without you, my friend, this story (or at least Chapters Six to Nine and the Epilogue) wouldn't have turned out the way it did. It has been an honor and a real pleasure to have such an amazing and talented writer as my proof-reader! Thanks again, from the bottom of my heart, for all your help and support! :)

Well now, my first _Kim Possible_ fanfiction has come to an end. I hope it wasn't my last one, though, because I had a badical time with you guys! Booya! Thank you once more for your warm welcome to the world of KP fanfiction! 'til we meet again (whenever that might be)! Take care & see you around! :)


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